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MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

FOB THE EMANCIPATION 
OF ADULT ILLITERATES 

BY 

CORA WILSON STEWART 

Chairman Illiteracy Commission, National Education 
Association; Chairman Illiteracy Committees: 
National Council of Education, and Gen- 
eral Federation Womens' Clubs. 




NEW YORK 
E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 

681 Fifth Avenue 



Copyright, 1922, 
By E. P. Dutton & Company 



All Rights Reserved 



A ^ 



PRINTED IN THE UNIIED 
STATES OF AMERICA 

©CI.A686540 

OCT 30 71 



TO THE VOLUNTEER TEACHEES IN THE MOONLIGHT 
SCHOOLS, WHOSE VISION, COURAGE AND SELF- 
SACRIFICE MADE IT POSSIBLE TO BLAZE THE 
TRAIL FOR THE EMANCIPATION OF 
THE nation's ILLITERATES, THIS 
VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY 
DEDICATED 



Grateful acknowledgments are made for assistance 
and helpful suggestions to the following : Mr. Erwin 
A. Holt, Mrs. Cornelia Steketee Hulst, Dr. J. G. 
Crabbe, Miss Linda Neville, General William H. 
Sears, Mr. Everett Dix, and Dr. Louise McDanell 
Browne. 



PEEPACE 

Many requests have come for a book telling 
the story of the moonlight schools. Teachers 
have expressed their need of such a book for 
their inspiration and guidance, and the general 
public has evidenced a desire to know more of 
the dramatic story of the origin, development 
and goal of these schools. 

**I have but one lamp by which my feet are 
guided, and that is the lamp of experience," said 
Patrick Henry. The crying need of **the lamp 
of experience '^ to guide the teachers who are 
engaged in the fight on illiteracy impels the 
author to present the experience of years of 
strenuous campaigning against illiteracy in book 
form and likewise to show forth the achieve- 
ments of adults who have passed from the dark- 
ness of illiteracy into light through the portals 
of the moonlight schools. 

vii 



Tiii PREFACE 

This book is purposely written in simple 
language and kept free from technical terms. It 
is a message to the teachers of every land and 
would be as easy and accessible to those who 
have had little preparation for teaching as to 
those who are experienced and trained. Not for 
the teacher alone is it written but even those who 
are not engaged in teaching will find a message, 
it is hoped, within its covers. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The People Who Gave the Moonlight 

Schools to the World .... 1 

II. The Origin of the Moonlight Schools 8 

III. Surprises of the First Session . . 14 

IV. Pioneer Methods in Dealing with 

Illiterates 21 

V. A Moonlight School Institute . . 32 

VI. The Results op the Second Session . 38 

VII. To Wipe Out Illiteracy the Teacher ^s 

Goal 47 

VIII. The Movement Extends to the Whole 

State of Kentucky ..... 57 

IX. The First Text-Books for Adult 

Illiterates 70 

X. Moonlight Schools in War Time . 81 

XI. Moonlight Schools in Reconstruction 

Days 106 

XII. The Illiteracy Crusade Spreads from 

State to State 124 

XIII. The Purpose of the Moonlight 

Schools 145 

XIV. The Need of Moonlight Schools . 167 

XV. The Call of the Illiterates . . . 189 

ix 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

The Spelling Match Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

They Came Carrying Babes in Arms 16 

Young Men and Women Whose Chance Had 

Come 18 

Arithmetic Was a Popular Study 28 

A Man Aged 87 Entered and Put to Shame the 
Kecord of the Proud School Girl of 86 of the 

Year Before 38 

They Were Schoolmates, and That is a Tie That 

Binds 44 

Letter From a Home Department Pupil 45 

A Class of Moonlight School Pupils All Past 50 

Years of Age 48 

Letter Written After Three Lessons 80 

Letter Written After Six Lessons 80 

Letter From Pupil After Attending Full Session 

of Moonlight School 80 

Letter From Man of Draft Age 94 

Letter From a War Veteran 108 

Letter From a Student in Prison. 118 

Letter From an Alabama Pupil 124 

xi 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING PAGE 

Letter From an Alabama- Pupil 125 

Letter From a North Carolina Pupil 126 

A North Carolina Moonlight School 128 

Oklahoma Moonlight School 130 

Letter to the State Superintendent of Schools, 

Oklahoma 130 

A Class of Mexican Mothers in California Learn- 
ing to Read and Write 132 

Letter From New Mexico Moonlight School 132 

Letter From a Georgia Moonlight School 134 

Jewish Mothers in New York Improving Their 
Education 140 

Mother of Twelve Children Learns to Read and 
Write 190 

Alex Webb, Aged 98, Who Learned to Read and 
Write in the Moonlight Schools 192 



INTEODUCTION 

It has been said that every great movement 
for freedom originated among mountain people. 
However true or nntrue this may be, the move- 
ment to emancipate the illiterates of America 
originated among the people of the mountains of 
Kentucky. It is not something that America is 
doing for the mountain people, but something 
which they have contributed to the nation and 
to the world. 

This was acknowledged by the United States 
Commissioner of Education in a bulletin issued 
in 1913 in which he said, 

**I submit herewith, for publication as a Bul- 
letin of the Bureau of Education, a statement 
showing in some detail the amount of illiteracy 
in the United States among men, women and 
children over ten years of age according to the 
Federal Census of 1910; also a brief statement 

xiii 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

of an experiment which has been conducted for 
nearly two years in one; of the mountain counties 
in eastern Kentucky having a large number of 
illiterates in its population, to ascertain if it 
were possible to teach these illiterate grown-up 
men and women and older children to read and 
write, and whether other men, women and 
children with very meager education would 
respond to the opportxmity to learn more of the 
arts of the school. The success of this experi- 
ment, made under very difficult circumstances, 
has been so great as to inspire the hope that, 
with the cooperation of schools, churches, philan- 
thropic societies, cities, counties, States and the 
Nation, the great majority of the five and a half 
million illiterates over ten years of age in the 
United States may, in a few years, be taught to 
read and write and something more." 



MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 



Moonlight Schools 

CHAPTER I 

THE PEOPLE WHO GAVE THE MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 
TO THE WORLD 

In the mountains of Kentucky there has been 
buried a treasure of citizenship richer far than 
all its vast fields of coal, its oil, its timber or 
mineral wealth. Here lives a people so in- 
dividual that authors have chosen them as their 
theme and artists as their isubjects to interpret 
to the world a people with a character dis- 
tinctive, sturdy, independent and rugged. 
This is a stock in which great movements 
can have their origin. No inferior people, no 
degenerate stock can embrace and demonstrate 
with enthusiasm new truths. These people are 
descended from the best ancestry — ^Virginia and 
North Carolina — that traces back to England, 



2 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Theirs was, in 
the main, an educated ancestry; some of their 
forefathers read Latin, and some of them 
Greek. Here and there in the mountain cabin 
and farm-house may be found an ancient copy 
of Csesar, Virgil, Chaucer and other rare old 
books, useless to the possessors save as relics 
of the past. They are a people of arrested 
civilization, who ising the ballads sung in Eng- 
land three hundred years ago and forgotten 
there now, and who use expressions that belong 
to the centuries past. Not all by any means, 
but some of them live lives such as were lived 
in rural England and in the hills of Scotland 
two hundred years ago. They have the blood 
and bearing of a noble people ; they are a noble 
people. Possessed of a high degree of intelli- 
gence, they have not degenerated even though 
deprived for years of educational opportunities, 
but have preserved the sturdy traits of their 
Scotch-Irish, English and Welsh ancestors. 

Their capacity for learning has always been 
immense and their desire for it has been 



THE PEOPLE WHO GAVE THE SCHOOLS 3 

equally so. Of all the authors who have chosen 
them as their theme and the artists who have 
recently begun to present them as a type, none 
have seemed to catch, or, at least, all have 
failed to portray, the dominant thing in moun- 
tain life, the strongest urge of the mountain- 
eer's soul — ^his eager, hungry, insatiable desire 
for knowledge. It is this which has sent moun- 
tain girls and boys walking a hundred miles or 
more to reach the school where they could work 
their way through. It is the thing which has 
caused many a slender mountain maid and many 
a frail lad to assume the work of a man when 
by so doing they could earn a little money to 
provide for a few weeks in school. It is the 
same desire that has caused many a mountain- 
eer to give his last few acres of land, his labor 
and his last dollar to found a school where his 
children and his neighbor's children might have 
an opportunity to learn. But, intense as this 
fervor for education has been, it has had to 
satisfy itself with looking back to the time when 
*' Gran 'pap was an educated man," and for- 



4 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

ward to the time when the children and grand- 
children would have an education. There was 
a lack of hope for the present and passing 
generation, a broad gap between the past and 
the future culture, which seemed to condemn 
many brilliant minds to an intellectual grave. 
Many of these people had never been permitted, 
for reasons all too tragic, to enter school, or 
if enrolled, they had been stopped at the end 
of a week, a month or at the close of their first 
term. There were married folk, who if they 
could even have overcome their embarrassment 
and summoned courage in later life to seek a 
school, would have found none open to them. 
In a land where people live long, these men 
and women, thirty, forty and fifty years of age, 
with, perhaps, a good quarter of a century, and 
many of them a half century, ahead of them — 
what must be done with them? Shall they be 
considered the wasted citizens of a state that 
cares not to redeem and use them, and of a 
nation that does not need such character and 
such brain? 



THE PEOPLE WHO GAVE THE SCHOOLS 5 

These mountain people now stand at the 
threshold of a new civilization, eager and hope- 
ful, anxious to enter in and take their part in 
the work of the world. They need the world's 
help, its best thought, its modern conveniences, 
but not more than the world needs them. In a 
day when racial groups weld themselves to- 
gether in America and seek to advance the 
welfare of the cotmtry from which they came 
rather than the welfare of the nation which 
has received them into its bosom, it is comfort- 
ing to remember that in these mountains of the 
southern istates America has a reservoir of 
strength and patriotism in the millions of pure 
Anglo-Saxon Americans.^ It is a reservoir 
that should not be kept walled in, nor should 

1 From Roosevelt's "Winning of the West." 

Along the western frontier of the colonies that were so 
soon to be the United States, on the slopes of the wooded 
mountains, and in the long, trough-like valleys that lay be- 
tween the ranges, dwelt a peculiar and characteristically 
American people. 

These frontier folk, the people of the up-country, or back- 
country who lived near and among the forest-clad mountains, 
far away from the long settled district of flat coast plain and 
sluggish tidal river, were known to themselves and to others 
aa backwoodsmen. They all bore a strong likeness to one 
another in their habits of thought and ways of living and 



6 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

it be turned back when it attempts to flow out 
over the land, but should be developed and 
permitted to send its strength to every section 

differed markedly from the people of the older and more 
civilized communities to the eastward. 

The backwoodsmen were Americans by birth and by parent- 
age, and of mixed race; but the dominant strain in their blood 
was that of the Presbyterian Irish — the Scotch-Irish as they 
were often called. Full credit has been awarded the Round- 
head and the Cavalier for their leadership in our history; nor 
have we been altogether blind to the deeds of the Hollander 
and the Huguenot; but it is doubtful if we have wholly realized 
the importance of the part played by that stern and virile 
people, the Irish, whose preachers taught the creed of Knox 
and Calvin. These Irish representatives of the Covenanters 
were in the west almost what the Puritans were in the North- 
cast, and more than the Cavaliers were in the South. Min- 
gled with the descendants of many other races, they never- 
theless, formed the kernel of the distinctively and intensely 
American stock who were the pioneers of our people in their 
march westward, the vanguard of the army of fighting settlers, 
who with axe and rifle won their way from the AUeghenies to 
the Rio Grande and the Pacific. 

They did not begin to come to America in any numbers till 
after the opening of the eighteenth century; but by 1730 they 
were fairly swarming across the ocean, for the most part in 
two streams, the larger going to the port of Philadelphia, 
the smaller to the port of Charleston. Pushing through the 
long settled lowlands of the seacoast, they at once made their 
abode at the foot of the mountains, and became the outposts 
of civilization. From Pennsylvania, whither the great ma- 
jority had come, they drifted south along the foothills and 
down the long valleys, till they met their brethren from 
Charleston who had pushed up into the Carolina back-coimtry. 
In this land of hills covered by unbroken forests they took 
root and flourished, stretching in a broad belt from north to 
south, a shield of sinewy men thrust in between the people of 
the seacoast and the red warriors of the wilderness. All 
through this region they were alike; they had as little kinship 
with the Cavalier as with the Quaker; the west was won by 



THE PEOPLE WHO GAVE THE SCHOOLS 7 

to carry virility and the very essence of Amer- 
icanism to communities where these precious 
things are diluted or dying out. 

those who have been rightly called the Eoundheads of the 
south, the same men who, before any others, declared for 
American independence. 

But indeed they were fitted to be Americans from the very 
start; they were kinsfolk of the Covenanters: they deemed it 
a religious duty to interpret their own Bible, and held for a 
divine right the election of their clergy. For generations 
their whole ecclesiastical and scholastic systems had been 
fundamentally democratic. In the hard life of the frontier 
they lost much of their religion, and they had but scant oppor- 
tunity to give their children the schooling in which they 
believed; but what few meeting-houses and school-houses there 
were on the border were theirs. 

A single generation, passed under the hard conditions of life 
in the wilderness, was enough to weld together into one people 
the representatives of these numerous and widely different 
races; and the children of the next generation became indis- 
tinguishable from one another. Long before the first Conti- 
nental Congress assembled, the backwoodsmen, whatever their 
blood, had become Americans, one in speech, thought and char- 
acter, clutching firmly to the land in which their fathers and 
grandfathers had lived before them. They had lost all remem- 
brance of Europe and all sympathy with things European; 
they had become as emphatically products native to the soil 
as were the tough and supple hickories out of which they 
fashioned the handles of their long, light axes. Their grim, 
harsh, narrow lives were yet strangely fascinating and full of 
adventurous toil and danger; none but natures as strong, as 
freedom-loving and as full of bold defiance as theirs could have 
endured existence on the, terms which these men found pleas- 
urable. Their iron surroundings made a mould which turned 
out all alike in the same shape. They resembled one another, 
and they differed from the rest of the world — even the world 
of America, and infinitely more the world of Elirope — ^in 
dress, in customs and in mode of life. 



CHAPTER n 

THE ORIGIN OF THE MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Strange impressions have prevailed in regard 
to the moonlight schools. Some have imagined 
them to be schools where children study and 
play and scamper on the green, like fairies by 
the moonlight; others have supposed them to 
be schools where lovers stroll arm-in-arm, 
quote poetry and tell the old, old story by the 
light of a -witching moon ; others, perhaps be- 
cause these schools originated in the mountains 
of Kentucky, have speculated upon their being 
schools where moonshiners, youthful and aged, 
are instructed in the best method of extracting 
the juice from the corn, and, at the same time, 
one so secretive as to prevent government inter- 
ference. 

Moonlight schools were first established in 
September, 1911. They had their origin in 

8 



ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS 9 

Eowan County, Kentucky. They were designed, 
primarily, to emancipate from illiteracy all 
those enslaved in its bondage. They were, also, 
intended to afford an opportunity to those of 
limited education who desired to improve their 
store of knowledge. 

These schools grew out of the only condition 
that can give to any institution permanent and 
substantial growth — an imperative human need. 
This need was expressed, not by any theorist 
or group of theorists but by the illiterates 
themselves. 

When I was Superintendent of Rowan County 
schools, I acted as voluntary secretary to sev- 
eral illiterate folk — a mistaken kindness — I 
ought to have been teaching them to read and 
write. Among these folk there was a mother 
whose children had all grown up without learn- 
ing save one daughter who had secured a limited 
education, and when grown, had drifted away 
to the city of Chicago, where she profited by 
that one advantage which the city possessed 
over the rural district — ^the night school. She 



10 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

SO improved her education and increased her 
efficiency that she was enabled to engage, profit- 
ably, in a small business. Her letters ji\^ere the 
only joys that came into that mother's life and 
the drafts which they contained were the only 
means of relieving her needs. Usually she 
would bring those letters to me, over the hill, 
seven miles, to read and answer for her. Some- 
times she would take them to the neighbors to 
interpret. Once after an absence of six weeks, 
an unaccustomed period, she came in one morn- 
ing fondling a letter. I noticed an unusual 
thing — the seal was broken. 

Anticipating her mission, I inquired, *'Have 
you a letter from your daughter ? Shall I read 
and answer it for you?'' 

She straightened up with more dignity and 
more pride than I have ever seen an illiterate 
assume — ^with more dignity and more pride 
than an illiterate could assume as she replied, 
**No, I kin answer hit fer myself. I've larned 
to read and write!" 

** Learned to read and write!" I exclaimed 



ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS 11 

in amazement. **Wlio was your teacher, and 
how did you happen to learn?" 

**Well, sometimes I jist couldn't git over 
here to see yon," she explained, **an' the cricks 
wonld be np 'twixt me an' the neighbors, or the 
neighbors wonld be away from home an' I 
couldn't git a letter answered fer three or four 
days; an' anyway hit jist seemed like thar was 
a wall 'twixt Jane an' me all the time, an' I 
wanted to read with my own eyes what she 
had writ with her own hand. So, I went to the 
store an' bought me a speller, an' I sot up at 
night 'til midnight an' sometimes 'til daylight, 
an' I larned to re^ad an' write." 

To verify her statement, she slowly spelled 
out the words of that precious letter. Then 
she sat down, and under my direction, answered 
it — ^wrote her first letter — an achievement which 
pleased her immeasurably, and one that must 
have pleased the absent Jane still more. 

A few days later a middle-aged man came 
into the office, a man stalwart, intelligent and 
prepossessing in appearance. While he waited 



12 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

for me to dispatch the business in hand, I 
handed him two books. He turned the leaves 
hurriedly, like a child handling its first books, 
turned them over and looked at the backs and 
laid them down with a sigh. Knowing the 
scarcity of interesting books in his locality, I 
proffered him the loan of them. He shook his 
head. 

'*I can't read or write," he said. Then the 
tears came into the eyes of that stalwart man 
and he added in a tone of longing, **I would 
give twenty years of my life if I could. ' ' 

A short time afterward, I was attending an 
entertainment in a rural district school. A lad 
of twenty was the star among the performers. 
He sang a beautiful ballad, partly borrowed 
from his English ancestors but mostly original, 
displaying his rare gift as a composer of song. 

When he had finished, I went over and sat 
down beside him. ** Dennis," I said *Hhat was 
a beautiful ballad. It is worthy of publication. 
Won't you write a copy for me?" 

His countenance, which had lighted up at my 



ORIGIN OF THE SCHOOLS 13 

approach, suddenly fell, and he answered in a 
crest-fallen tone, **I would if I could write, but 
I can't. Why, I've thought up a hundred of 
'em that was better 'n that, but I'd fergit 'em 
before anybody come along to set 'em down." 
These were the three incidents that led di- 
rectly to the establishment of the moonlight 
schools. I interpreted them to be not merely 
the call of three individuals, but the call of 
three different classes; the appeal of illiterate 
mothers, separated from their absent children 
farther than sea or land or any other condition 
than death had power to divide them; the call 
of middle-aged men, shut out from the world of 
books, and unable to read the Bible or the news- 
papers or to cast their votes in secrecy and 
security; the call of illiterate youths and 
maidens who possessed rare talents, which if 
developed might add treasures to the world of 
art, science, literature and invention. 



CHAPTER III 

SUKPRISES OF THE FIRST SESSION 

The opening of the day schools to them was 
first considered, but the day schools were al- 
ready crowded with children, and anyway, 
illiterates, more than any other class, are 
chained to labor by day. Then came the thought 
of opening the schools at night, but bad roads 
with innumerable gullies, high hills and un- 
bridged streams were obstacles to overcome. 
Besides, the county had been, at one time, a 
feud county and the people were not accustomed 
to venturing out much after night. It was de- 
cided to have the schools on moonlight nights, 
and let the moon light them on their way to 
school. 

The teachers of the county were called to- 
gether and the conditions laid before them. 
They were asked to volunteer to teach at night 

14 



THE FIBST SESSION 15 

those whom the schools of the past had left 
behind. To their everlasting credit be it said 
that not one of those teachers expressed a doubt 
or offered an excuse, but each and every one of 
them, without a single exception, volunteered to 
teach at night, after she had taught all day, and 
to canvass her district in advance to inform 
the people of the purpose of these schools and 
to urge them all to attend. 

This preliminary canvass was made on Labor 
Day, September 4, 1911. The teachers of 
Eowan County celebrated the holiday by going 
out into the highways and byways to gather in 
to school all who needed to learn. They went 
into every farm-house and hovel, inviting both 
educated and uneducated to attend. 

On September 5, the brightest moonlight 
night, it seemed to me, that the world had ever 
known, the moonlight schools opened for their 
first session. "We had estimated the number 
that would attend, and an average of three to 
each school, one hundred and fifty in the entire 
county was the maximum set. 



16 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

We waited with anxious hearts. The teachers 
had volunteered, the schools had been opened, 
the people had been invited but would they 
come? They had all the excuses that any toil- 
worn people ever had. They had rugged roads 
to travel, streams without bridges to cross, high 
hills to climb, children to lead and babes to 
carry, weariness from the hard day's toil; but 
they were not seeking excuses, they were seek- 
ing knowledge, and so they came. They came 
singly or hurrying in groups, they came walk- 
ing for miles, they came carrying babes in 
arms, they came bent with age and leaning on 
canes, they came twelve hundred strong! 

There were overgrown boys who had dropped 
out of school at an early age and had been 
ashamed to re-enter the day school and be class- 
ified with the tiny tots. These came to catch 
up again. There were maidens who had been 
deprived of education, through isolation, in- 
validism or some other cause, but who felt that 
there was something better for them in life than 
ignorance. There were women who had mar- 




m 

0) 

• l-H 

u 
o 






THE FIRST SESSION 17 

ried in childhood, practically, as is so much the 
wont of mountain girls — ^but who all their lives 
had craved that which they knew to be their 
inherent right — ^their mental development. By 
their sides were their husbands, men who had 
been humiliated when they had made their mark 
in the presence of the educated and when forced 
to ask the election officers to cast a vote for 
them for the candidates of their choice. There 
were middle-aged men who had seen a hundred 
golden opportunities pass them by because of 
the handicap of illiteracy, whose mineral, tim- 
ber and material stores, as well as their time 
and labor, were in the control of the educated 
men, making them but beggars, as it were, on 
the bounty of those whom they enriched. There 
were women whose children had all grown up 
and vanished from the home, some of them into 
the far West, and when the spoken word and 
the hand-clasp had ceased there could be no 
heart-to-heart communication, for the third per- 
son as an interpreter between mother and child 
is but a poor medium at best. These and other 



18 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

folk — some half educated and some more — ^made 
up these schools. 

**Just to learn to read my Bible!" was the 
cry of many a patriarch and many a withered 
dame. 

^^Jnst to write my children with my own 
hand, and to read their letters with my own 
eyes!'' was the cry of the mother's heart. 

'*Jnst to escape from the shame of making 
my mark!" was the appeal of the middle-aged 
man. 

**Jiist to have a chance with the other folk — 
to be something and to do something in the 
world!" was the expressed desire of youth and 
maid. 

The youngest student was aged eighteen, the 
oldest eighty-six. It was a scene to bring tears 
to the eyes, but surely one to make the heart 
rejoice, to see those hoary-headed old people 
and those robust young people seated at their 
desks studying together, or standing in a row 
in class to spell,' or lined up at the blackboard 
to solve problems or to write. 




o 
o 

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c 

o 



o 

oi 

2 

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C 
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be 
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THE FIRST SESSION 19» 

Many of them learned to write their names 
the first evening, and snch rejoicing as there 
was over this event ! One old man on the shady^ 
side of fifty shouted for joy when he learned to' 
write his name. ** Glory to God!" he shouted^, 
*^I'll never have to make my mark any more!"* 

Some were so intoxicated with joy that they 
wrote their names in frenzied delight on trees, 
fences, barns, barrel staves and every available 
scrap of paper; and those who possessed even 
meager savings, drew the money ont of its hid- 
ing place and deposited it in the bank, wrote 
their checks and signed their names with pride. 
Soon letters began to go from hands that had 
never written, before, to loved ones in other 
counties and in far distant states, and usually 
the first letter of each student came to the 
County School Superintendent. In a movement 
full of romance and heroism, there is no incident 
more romantic or more delightful to record 
than the fact that the first three letters 
that ever came out of the moonlight schools 
came in this order: the first, from a mother 



20 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

who had children absent in the West; the 
second, from the man who ** would give twenty 
years of his life if he could read and 
write''; and the third from the boy who would 
forget his ballads * before anybody come along 
to set 'em down." This answered the anxious 
question in our hearts as to whether the moon- 
light schools had met the need of those who had 
made the appeal. 



CHAPTER IV 

PIONEER METHODS IN DEALING WITH ILLITERATES 

There were no readers in print for adult 
illiterates, so a little weekly newspaper was 
published as a reading text. 

Can we win? 
Can we win what? 
Can we win the prize? 
Yes, we can win. 
See us try. 
And see us win ! 

This was the first lesson. It consisted of 
simple words, much repetition and a content 
that related to the activity of the reader, all 
of which, in a first lesson are essential. The 
lesson referred to a contest between the moon- 
light schools, and the element of rivalry thus 
introduced heightened the interest and produced 

21 



22 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

a style of reading that rang with the emphasis 
of a challenge. There was attained immediately 
what had been striven for in the day ^schools 
with only indifferent snocess — ^natural expres- 
sion in reading. 

In the later lessons there was a sentence 
which read, **The best people on earth live in 
Rowan County.'' Provincial though this may 
seem to some and flattery to others, it had the 
desired effect of keeping the interest at white 
heat, as perhaps a sentence like — '* Foreign 
birds wear pretty feathers" could not have 
done. One old man read the sentence and openly 
expressed his approval. He leaned back in his 
seat and with a hearty laugh exclaimed, "That's 
the truth!'' 

Continuing the lesson, he found a little fur- 
ther along a sentence that read like this, **The 
man who does not learn to read and write is not 
a good citizen and would not fight for his coun- 
try if it needed him." 

This was published before the World War 
when a vast number of illiterate soldiers were 



DEALING WITH ILLITERATES 23 

called into the American Army, and is a state- 
ment disproved, of conrse ; for illiterate soldiers 
are courageous and as patriotic as their under- 
standing will permit. But the sentence pro- 
voked students to their best possible work. The 
old man who had exulted in being one of those 
*'best people on earth," became very thoughtful 
after reading it, and then resumed his study 
with grim determination, for to a Kentuckian 
there is no accusation so humiliating as the one 
that he, under any circumstances will not fight. 
To a Kentucky mountaineer it is ignominy 
complete. 

The little newspaper had a fourfold purpose : 
to enable adults to learn to read without the 
humiliation of reading from a child's primer 
with its lessons on kittens, dolls and toys; to 
give them a sense of dignity in being, from their 
very first lesson, readers of a newspaper; to 
stimulate their curiosity through news of their 
neighbor's movements and community occur- 
rences and compel them to complete in quick 
succession the sentences that followed; to 



24 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

aronse them through news of educational and 
civic improvements in other districts to make 
like progress in their own. 

News items such as ''Bill Smith is building 
a new barn" and ''John Brown has moved to 
Kansas" caused them quickly to master the 
next sentence to see what the next neighbor was 
doing and we found that curiosity was not con- 
fined altogether to the women. 

"They are building new steps to the school- 
house at Slab Camp and putting up hemstitched 
curtains" was the item that caused BuU Fork 
moonlight school to build new steps, put up 
hemstitched curtains and paint the school-house 
besides. 

Other elementary subjects were taught by the 
question and answer method — sometimes called 
the Socratic method. Only the minimum essen- 
tials were included in the course. For instance, 
the student might not be able to master Amer- 
ican history in one short session; he could not 
learn the principal events of each President's 
term, the dates of battles, and the flounderings 



DEALING WITH ILLITERATES 25 

of the various political parties, but lie coidd at 
least learn a limited number of important facts 
that every American citizen should know. 

The ignorance of some people, even native- 
born Americans, about American history, shows 
that a few basic facts taught them would be a 
blessed act of enlightenment. An illiterate old 
man speaking at a patriotic meeting was heard 
to say, *' Uncle Sam, our President of the 
United States, is a grand old man." Another 
during the early stages of the World War de- 
clared, **The United States ought to go over 
and help France. He helped us when we needed 
it and now we ought to help him." 

The drills in history attempted nothing more 
ambitious in the beginning session than to clear 
up such wrong impressions, to open up the 
subject to the students, and to give them a few 
essential facts that would stand out or, if fur- 
ther advancement were possible, might be the 
skeleton on which a thorough course could be 
hung. 

Drills in such facts as by whom America was 



26 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

discovered, by whom it was inhabited and by 
whom settled; the story of how our indepen- 
dence was won; the name and nature of our 
first President, may have been history in homeo- 
pathic doses, but was eagerly swallowed and 
was wholesome knowledge for people who 
knew nothing of the subject. Such cluttering- 
up facts as the battles we have fought, the 
number we have killed and mutilated, the 
traitors we have had, the mistakes we have 
made in passing and then repealing bad laws, 
the long struggle to overcome certain glaring 
evils and to secure certain needed reforms, may 
well be omitted from a course which requires 
the utmost condensation. 

The drills were elective. Besides history 
they included civics, English, health and sanita- 
tion, geography, home economics, agriculture, 
horticulture and good roads. Four were to be 
chosen from these, the four most suitable to the 
district's needs. 

English was one of the most popular drills, 
as well as one most needed. The letter "g," 



DEALING WITH ILLITERATES 27 

SO often ignored by illiterates, in **ing" was re- 
instated to its proper dignity and use through, 
drills on such words as '* reading," "writing," 
"spelling," "talking," "singing," "cooking," 
"sewing" and others with a similar ending. 
Words commonly mispronounced in the com- 
munity were made the subject of a drill. Such 
words as "seed," "crick," "kiver," "git," 
"hit," "hyeard," "tuk," "fust," "haint" and 
"skeered," were pronounced repeatedly until 
the right habit was formed, and the most glar- 
ing monstrosities of pronunciation were weeded 
out. A language conscience was created where 
none had existed before, and a beginning was 
thus made toward improving bad English — a 
beginning which, though but a pathway blazed, 
was expected to lead out into the broad highway 
of better, if not perfect, speech. This was long 
before the crusade for better ispeech in America 
was inaugurated with its "National Better 
Speech Week." 

It was surprising how readily these grown 
folk mastered certain subjects. Despite the 



28 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

fears of some educators that violence was be- 
ing done to psychology in the attempt to teach 
them, the grown folk learned, and learned with 
ease. One eminent psychologist, who early 
gave encouragement to the movement, wrote me 
saying, — **In the moonlight schools you are 
demonstrating what I have always believed, 
that reading, writing and arithmetic are com- 
paratively easy subjects for the adult mind." 
Some educators, however, declared preposter- 
ous the claims we made that grown people were 
learning to read and write. It was contrary 
to the principles of psychology, they said. 
While they went around saying it couldn't be 
done, we went on doing it. We asked the 
doubters this question, **When a fact disputes 
a theory, is it not time to discard the theory?" 
There was no reply. 

The memory subjects were the most difficult 
for these adult students. They had passed the 
** golden memory period," most of them, many 
years ago, and though they had memorized 
ballads, folk-lore and recipes to some extent, 




?3 



p— I 

ft 
o 
ft 



< 



DEALING WITH ILLITERATES 29 

nevertheless, memory was in them a thing 
practically nnt rained. 

They were tanght only a few memory gems. 
The first one was from Whittier's poem, ''Our 
State." It was the motto at the head of the 
little newspaper which they used for a reading 
text : 

The riches of the Commonwealth 

Are free, strong minds and hearts of health, 

And dearer far than gold or grain 

Are cunning hand and cultured brain. 

The following lines from Longfellow's *'The 
Ladder of St. Augustine," were popular as a 
memory gem, comparing as it did with their 
own ladder of enlightenment, of which they 
were just mounting the first round: 

The heights by great men reached and kept 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night. 

Another gem precious to them was this one 
taught them by a Louisville club woman, who 
at the age of seventy-five came and traveled 
over the hills at night, inspired by a desire to 



30 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

see and to help these men and women who had 
heroically begnn their education late in life : 

He prayeth best, who loveth best 
All things both great and small ; 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all. 

Only one complete poem was to be memorized 
during the session. What should it be? With 
the world so full of poet lore to choose from, 
should it be Burns' ''To a Mountain Daisy," 
Bryant's ''To a Waterfowl," Lanier's "Ballad 
of Trees and the Master," Wordsworth's "The 
Daffodils," Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" or 
should some other gem of poetry be bestowed 
on those who possessed not even one? The 
one who introduces the first poem to students 
like these stands on holy ground, and should 
prayerfully make the choice. As literature, the 
selection made might be criticised by some, but 
as the needed inspiration, the choice was one 
that met the test. 

A man who was for twenty-five years pres- 
ident of a normal school in the mountains, 



DEALING WITH ILLITERATES 31 

visited the moonlight schools and on hearing 
the students recite this poem, said, "If these 
men and women learn nothing else besides this 
poem during the session it has been worth while 
for them to attend." It was Longfellow's 
** Psalm of Life" and the sentiment expressed 
in these two stanzas foxmd an answering echo 
in their hearts: 

In the world's broad field of battle, 
In the bivouac of life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle, 
Be a hero in the strife. 

Let us then be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate, 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait. 



CHAPTER V 

A MOONUGHT SCHOOL INSTITUTE 

The people clamored for the moonlight 
schools to open the next year. They, and not 
the teachers, took the initiative and pressed the 
matter. The teachers responded heartily. 

Prior to the opening of the second session,, 
a moonlight school institute was held — ^the first 
institute for night school teachers in America, 
if not in the world. The methods of teaching 
adult illiterates, materials to use, ways and 
means of reaching the stubborn and getting 
them into school and other things relative to 
the problem of educating adults were discussed. 
Teachers were not compelled by law to attend 
this institute, as they were, the institute for 
day-school work but, nevertheless, they did at- 
tend, paying their own expenses during the 
session and participating more earnestly than 

32 



MOONLIGHT SCHOOL INSTITUTE 33 

they had ever been known to participate in any 
other institnte. They compared their experi- 
ences of the previous session, and some cases 
of supreme sacrifice and rare heroism were 
unconsciously revealed. Most of them had suc- 
ceeded with but little effort. They had but to 
meet the rising tide of eager, hungry-minded 
adults who came rushing to the schools in almost 
overwhelming numbers. Others had been mis- 
understood, but had stemmed the buffeting 
waves of criticism and misunderstanding and, 
after being tossed about, had ridden to success. 
None had failed — not one, though some had been 
compelled to make two or three efforts before 
they finally succeeded. One had tried it alone 
and failed, then enlisted the children as recruit- 
ing officers and sent them far and wide to 
gather in their elders, which they did with 
remarkable success. 

One young woman — Si perfect blend of the 
Scotch-Irish type — ^who was teacMng her first 
school when the moonlight schools were inaugu- 
rated told her story with a twinkle in her eye 



34 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

that seemed to belie any suggestion of hardships 
endured. 

**I went to the school-house the first even- 
ing/' she said, **and nobody came. I went the 
second and there was nobody there. I went the 
third, fourth and fifth and still no pupils. I 
said, *I'm going to be like Bruce and the Spider, 
I'm going to try seven times,' and on the seventh 
night when I got to the school-house I w^as- 
greeted by three pupils. Before the term 
closed I had enrolled sixty-five in my moon- 
light school and taught twenty-three illiterates 
to read and write." This, like all the stories, 
was modestly told. No mention was made of 
the day by day visits to the homes of illiterates, 
the long walks, the hours on horseback, the 
earnest persuasion, the chill of disappointment 
when waiting at the school-house alone. The 
Scotch determination was revealed in the words, 
^^I said I'm going to be like Bruce and the 
spider, I'm going to try seven times." The 
twinkle of humor in her eye was at the recol- 
lection, no doubt, of the schemes and designs by 



MOONLIGHT SCHOOL INSTITUTE 35 

which she had outwitted those illiterates and 
brought them into the school. 

One youthful teacher was inclined to apol- 
ogize for the few she had enrolled and said, 
^^I didn't have as large a school as the others — 
just four — ^but they were in earnest, and I did 
my best with them, and told them I would teach 
as long as one of them would come," and then 
she added with an evident thrill of pride, ^^but 
I taught a preacher to read and write, and that 
was something, wasn't it?" 

There was no lack of interest or enthusiasm 
on the part of the volunteer teachers or their 
pupils, but there was a pitiful lack of suitable 
text-books and school material for adults, which 
was voiced many times during the institute as 
chief of their handicaps. The little newspaper 
with its reading lessons and drills, a simple 
copy book, arithmetic taught from the day- 
school text, these, supplemented by whatever 
knowledge the teacher could impart or could 
draw from the commxmity, constituted our 
supply. 



36 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Out of that first institute for night-school 
teachers we emerged with, perhaps, a few 
things gained. Our position was strengthened, 
and we presented a united front, if possible to 
bring about more unity than had existed the 
year before ; there was a renewed consecration, 
a common knowledge of all the plans and de- 
vices used in the different districts the year 
before to gain the confidence and secure the 
attendance of illiterates, and a determination 
to excel the record of the previous year. Back 
of us was a battle won; it was the convincing 
proof that hundreds had been taught, a strength 
and stay that we had not had in the first year, 
a mile-stone gained that made the next mile 
easier to travel, a precedent, which to many is 
the most powerful argument of any in the 
world. Some had learned, even the aged and 
infirm, the poor of sight and dull of mind. 
Glory be ! others could learn, or else must admit 
themselves more stupid than their neighbors. 
Each teacher had all the facts, the arguments 
and the experiences of his fellows, and they knew 



MOONLIGHT SCHOOL INSTITUTE 37 

his, and there was a crystallizatian of their 
enthusiasm, which made them well-nigh irre- 
sistible. 

In those days of earnest discussion and plan- 
ning for helping a people who had been aban- 
doned by the educational forces of all time, and 
a people who, themselves, until the moonlight 
schools burst upon them, had abandoned hope, 
there was never a doubt expressed, a complaint 
made or even a suggestion that this volunteer 
service was a sacrifice or a hardship, or any- 
thing but a holiday joy. To them it was a high 
adventure, not without its tests of endurance 
and sincerity, but one whose tests they fully 
met, even the frailest of them, because their 
faith was absolute; this faith and one other 
thing they possessed that gave them victory 
over all hindrances and obstacles — the right 
spirit. These two are well-nigh unconquerable 
elements in any noble endeavor. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE RESULTS OF THE SECOND SESSION 

The second session surpassed the first in 
every particular. We enrolled 1,600 students, 
and taught 350 to read and write. A man aged 
eighty-seven entered and put to shame the 
record of the proud school-girl of eighty-six 
of the year before. 

There were many evidences of individual 
development and achievement. One man, for- 
eign born, who had been working at a lumber 
camp at the meager wage of $1.50 per day 
entered the moonlight school and specialized in 
mathematics — that part of it pertaining to his 
business, and at the close of the six weeks' ses- 
sion, was promoted at a salary double that which 
he had received before. Some of the school 
trustees, who were none too well educated, found 
in the moonlight school their opportunity to 
advance, which many of them embraced. One 

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THE SECOND SESSION 39 

school trustee who went from the moonlight 
school into the day school sat in the seat with 
his own twelve-year-old boy and studied in the 
same books and recited in the same classes. 
Another accompanied his wife to the moonlight 
school, she being the teacher, and he was so 
delighted with his progress that he enrolled, 
also, in the day school — ^and his deportment was 
good, so the problem of discipline did not enter 
in to cause domestic infelicity. 

We taught two postmasters to read and write, 
and Uncle Sam still owes for their tuition. 
How they received their commissions has never 
been explained, but it is a weU-known fact that 
while the fathers had held the commissions, 
their daughters had performed the services. 
When the fathers were emancipated from illit- 
eracy, the daughters were emancipated from 
the post-offices and were free to follow their 
own inclinations. One of them entered High 
School and the other got married. 

We taught four Baptist preachers to read 
and write. While this may seem inconceivable 



40 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

to some, nevertheless it is a fact that there are 
men in the mountains and an occasional one 
in the valleys of the Sonth, who, when they have 
felt the call to the ministry, have not even per- 
mitted the f earfnl handicap of illiteracy to deter 
them from doing that which they conceived to 
be their duty. Naturally these illiterate min- 
isters are much handicapped. ^*If the blind 
leads the blind both shall fall into the ditch," 
is a maxim very applicable here. Illiterate 
ministers must depend entirely on others to 
read the Bible to them, and, unfortunately some 
turned out by the day school are as poor readers 
as those who attempted to read for the king, 
according to the story told in one of McGuffey's 
school books. A reader of this type, attempt- 
ing to read to an illiterate minister one day, 
read the sentence, ^*Paul was an austere man,'' 
like this, **Paul was an oyster man." The 
preacher declared to his congregation the next 
Sabbath that Peter was a fisherman and Paul 
was an oyster man, thus giving his congrega- 
tion an unusual conception of Paul. Another 



THE SECOND SESSION 41 

heard the sentence, ** Jacob made booths for his 
cattle," read, *' Jacob made boots for his cattle," 
and discoursed from the pnlpit on *^ Jacob, that 
humane man, wonld not even permit his cattle 
to go barefooted, but made boots for them to 
protect their tender feet as they walked over 
the stones." 

These men realized their disadvantages, and 
they knew the value of the education offered 
them. They knew it by the best standard by 
which the value of a thing may be measured — the 
need of it — a need that in their case had been 
many times made painfully manifest. So, they 
accepted the opportunity and used their influ- 
ence, which was more powerful in the com- 
munity than might be supposed, among their 
followers to get them to enroll in the schools. 
They did more ; they gave a new support to the 
day schools, working for them with zeal, visit- 
ing them, speaking in their behalf, and sounding 
louder than any others the cry, ''Everybody, 
young and old — ^to the books!" 

Nothing better was ever given to any cru- 



42 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

sader than the privilege which was mine one 
Sabbath day, that of hearing a minister recently 
redeemed from illiteracy read from the Bible for 
the first time and preach from this text, which 
I thought strangely appropriate, ''Who is 
this that darkeneth counsel by words without 
knowledge?'' 

I stood in the door of New Hope school-house 
one evening and watched the throng come troop- 
ing through the moonlight to school. There 
were farmers and farmers' wives, and their 
grown sons and daughters; there were former 
school teachers who had seized this opportunity 
to break up the stagnation which had overtaken 
them; there was the community carpenter, the 
district blacksmith, the postmaster and his 
wife, the country doctor, the cross-roads mer- 
chant, the mill-owner with his crew of illiterate 
men, all coming joyously, hopefully in quest of 
knowledge. It was ^*new hope" indeed to them. 
Some came to learn, some to teach, but all 
learned, for those who taught developed amaz- 
ingly. 



THE SECOND SESSION 43 

"Everybody in school" was the ideal, and it 
was caught and cherished by children as well as 
parents. The children exerted a powerful in- 
fluence in getting their parents to school. The 
teachers would say to them at the close of the 
day, *^Now, children go home and send your 
parents to school this evening," and while it 
was a pleasantry, it was, also, a request and 
one that they heeded. The children were won- 
derful recruiting officers for the moonlight 
schools. They worked and reported their suc- 
cess with the keen enthusiasm of childhood. 
One little fellow listened to the others and said 
sorrowfully, "I talked moonlight schools too 
but it didn't do any good." He persisted, how- 
ever, and the words, "A little child shall lead 
them" proved literally true, for the following 
evening he came to school proudly leading his 
mother by one hand and his father by the other. 

A thousand seeds sown by teachers and school 
children this year did not bear fruit until the 
next. Some who did not yield to persuasion and 
come out to school were found learning in 



44 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

secret at home. However, there were few who 
did not seek the school more earnestly than it 
sought them. These few, from pride, and false 
pride it was, feared to expose their iUiteracy 
and thought to hide it by remaining at home. 

For such as these and the stubborn, the de- 
crepit and the disinclined, a home department 
was established. Gladys Thompson, a blessed 
teacher, gone to her reward, and whom these 
pages would memorialize, finding two in her 
district who could not attend school at night, 
one because of feebleness and the other because 
of defective sight, went to their homes be- 
tween the hours of her day school and moon- 
light school and taught them to read and write. 
Her plan was adopted and proved a valuable 
adjunct to the work of the moonlight school, 
especially in dissolving the dregs of illiteracy, 
in teaching the last few or the lone, difficult one. 

Besides the incidents of individual develop- 
ment and individual achievement, a new com- 
munity spirit was born. A school trustee thus 
describes the change in his community: 




They were schoolmates and that is a tie that binds. 



(X^x^ C^^"^^^ /O-t^ (pAjttjM^ 




tA^/yyi^ ayyu£ z^^^^^-?^ 






LETTER FROM A HOME DEPARTMENT PUPIIi 



THE SECOND SESSION 45 

**I have lived in this district for fifty-five 
years, and I never saw any such interest as we 
have here now. The school used to just drag 
along and nobody seemed interested. We never 
had a gathering at the school-house and npbody 
ever thought of visiting the school. We had not 
had a night school but three weeks until we got 
together right. We papered the house, put in 
new windows, purchased new stovepipe, made 
new steps, contributed money, and bought the 
winter's fuel. 

**Now we have a live Sunday school, a sing- 
ing school, prayer meeting once each week, and 
preaching twice a month. People of all denom- 
inations in the district meet and worship to- 
gether in perfect unity and harmony, aged 
people come regularly, and even people from 
the adjoining county are beginning to come over 
to our little school-house." 

Good-roads clubs, fruit clubs, agricultural 
clubs, home economies clubs and Sunday schools 
were organized. There was an awakened, if 
not trained leadership, a whetted desire for co- 



46 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

operative activity where individualism and 
stagnation had prevailed. Friction and fac- 
tional feeling melted away in districts where 
they had existed, and a new spirit of har- 
mony and brotherhood came to take their 
place. Men and women who had hitherto been 
divided by contention and strife now worked 
Bide by side in concord. They were school- 
mates and that is a tie that binds. 



CHAPTER Vn 

TO WIPE OUT ILLITERACY THE TEACHER'S GOAL 

To wipe illiteracy ont of the county was the 
goal set for the following year. First, the 
school trustees were induced to take a census of 
the illiterates. "When this was completed, an 
investigation was made of each individual case. 
Soon we had on record, not only the name and 
age of every illiterate in the county, but his 
history as well, his ancestry, his home environ- 
ment, his family ties, his religious faith, his 
political belief, his weaknesses, tastes and 
peculiarities, and the influence or combination 
of influences through which he might be reached 
in case the teacher failed with him. 

Each teacher was given the list of illiterates 
in her district and told to go out and cultivate 
these people, like a good politician, before the 

47 



48 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

moonlight schools began. The citizens of the 
connty were enlisted. The slogan ^'Each one 
teach one,'' was adopted and most of the people 
were glad to obey. Doctors were soon teaching 
their convalescent patients, ministers were 
teaching members of their flocks, children were 
teaching their parents, stenographers were 
teaching waitresses in the small town hotels, and 
the person in the connty without a pupil was 
considered a very useless sort of individual. 
The district with an illiterate in it was a dis- 
trict in disrepute, while thQ child with an illit- 
erate parent felt that he was a child disgraced. 
A man redeemed from illiteracy became at once 
a source of pride and admiration to his neigh- 
bors, as well as to himself and family, and, like 
most new converts to a cause, he exceeded the 
old adherents in loyalty and zeal. 

Some of those who had learned were not only 
walking evangelists preaching the gospel of 
"No illiteracy in the county," but became 
itinerant teachers, going from district to dis- 
trict giving lessons. Those fresh from their 



THE TEACHER'S GOAL 49 

first contact with the printed page imparted 
what they had learned, meager though it was, 
with an enthusiasm, that was possible only 
to the newly-learned. They were successful 
teachers. They attempted to give lessons in 
reading and writing only and to create that self- 
confidence, which, with adult illiterates, was the 
first battle to be won. They had the advantage, 
too, of presenting themselves as examples, as 
living proof that illiterates could learn. Their 
visits to illiterate homes started the process of 
learning in most cases, and cleared the way for 
the teacher who was to follow with more com- 
plete and thorough knowledge. 

Each and every district was striving to be 
the first to wipe out illiteracy. One school 
trustee, who had been campaigning strenuously 
all week against illiteracy, came in on Saturday 
and said with determination, ^'I'll bet I have 
illiteracy out of my district before Monday 
morning. There 's only one illiterate over there, 
and he's a tenant on my place; I'm going to 
run him out over into Fleming County." 



50 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

''Oh, no," I protested, ** That's not the way 
to get rid of illiteracy. Yon mnst teach him 
before he goes." 

A yonng teacher who felt somewhat disconr-^ 
aged, came in for some advice. **Yon gave me 
a list of sixteen illiterates in my district," said 
he, *^and I've taught fifteen of them to read and 
write; but there's one stubborn old woman out 
there who absolutely refuses to learn. I've 
exhausted my resources with her." 

He deserved commendation and he needed 
encouragement, so I said, **A young man who 
has made a success as you have done in that 
most diflScult of all places, his home district, 
who has enrolled one hundred and eleven men 
and women in his moonlight school and has 
taught fifteen out of sixteen illiterates to read 
and write will get the other one. I have no fear 
but that you will succeed." 

We got the illiteracy record and looked up 
this old woman's history. "We found that she 
thought she was a physician, and felt flattered 
when anyone sought her services as such. 



THE TEACHER'S GOAL 51 

The young man went back to his district and 
there developed an eruption on his wrist. He 
went over and consulted this old woman. She 
diagnosed his case as erysipelas and proceeded 
to treat him. She concluded that one who 
possessed such excellent judgment in the selec- 
tion of a physician, knew enough to teach her 
(Something; so while she treated him for ery- 
sipelas, he treated her for illiteracy, and she 
learned to read and write. He sent in her first 
letter, enclosed in his own, and wrote in great 
glee, *' Tabor Hill district is freer from illit- 
eracy than Boston ; come at once and bring the 
Bibles.'' It was the plan at that time to give 
a Bible to each one who learned to read and 
write. It was an o:ffer that was made when our 
vision was small and we could not anticipate the 
large numbers that would take advantage of it. 
When hundreds began to claim it, we tried to 
keep the faith, and some of us have not yet 
recovered from the strain on our pocketbooks.. 
I drove out to Tabor Hill one bright moonlit 
evening to witness the celebration which marked! 



52 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

the banishmeiit of illiteracy from the district. 
The scene was one good for the eyes of those 
who delight in a real community center, al- 
though at that time such a thing as a community 
center was known in few rural districts in the 
United States. But here was the highest ideal 
of a community center being realized. Every 
person in the district was at the school-house. 
The men and women, who had been in their seats 
bright and early, were gaily chatting ; the young 
people stood around the organ, singing their 
gladsome songs, and around the house, peering 
in at the windows, was a cordon of spectators six 
rows deep. 

The newly learned gave an exhibition of their 
recently acquired knowledge. They read and 
wrote, quoted history and ciphered proudly in 
the presence of their world. They did it with 
more pride than ever high school, college or 
university graduates displayed on their com- 
mencement day. 

They were next presented with Bibles, and 
as they came up one by one, some young and 



THE TEACHER'S GOAL 53 

stalwart, some bent and gray, to receive their 
Bibles with gracious words of thanks, it was an 
impressive scene — and when the Jezebel of the 
community came forward and accepted her 
Bible and pledged herself to lead a new life 
f orevermore, there was hardly a dry eye in the 
house. 

Lemonade was a thing rarely seen in those 
parts, a treat indeed, so it was served as the 
final reward, not from a punch bowl, as it is 
served in most places, but from the most avail- 
able thing to be found on Tabor Hill — a lard 
can. As they passed in line around the recep- 
tacle to be served, an old man rose in the back 
part of the house and said in a loud voice, 
** Things certainly have changed in this district. 
It used to be that you couldn't hold meeting or 
Sunday school in this house without the boys 
shooting through the windows. It used to be 
moonshiae and bullets; but now it's lemonade 
and Bibles." * 

Some teachers found obstacles in their way, 
guch as the prolonged absence of the illiterates 



§4 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

from home, but they watched for their return, 
and even if they came back and tarried but a 
short time, they put them for the moment to 
the book and pen. One teacher said to me, ^'I 
have a father and three grown sons in my dis- 
trict who are employed twelve miles from home 
and are only at home on the Sabbath day. Do 
you think there would be any harm in my going 
over there on Sunday and teaching them to read 
and write?" Eemembering those words of the 
Master when he was asked in regard to healing 
the withered hand of a man on the Sabbath day — 
and certainly these were withered hands — and 
His answer, '*Is it lawful to do good on the 
Sabbath day?" I said, **It is a holy day and I 
think it would be a holy deed. ' ' The young man 
went Sunday after Sunday and taught the father 
and sons to read and write. 

There are masterpieces of art that one would 
travel many miles to see, but to me there is no 
picture more beautiful than the one my imagina- 
tion conjures up of that young teacher, with 



THE TEACHER'S GOAL 55 

those four grown men grouped abont him learn- 
ing to read and write on the Sabbath day. 

We tried by every means, to wipe illiteracy 
out of the connty to the last individnal. Every 
one was offered the opportunity and some were 
offered it repeatedly. The overwhelming ma- 
jority accepted it with joy and gratitude— a few 
had to be coaxed. Some few, in their ignorance 
had a misconception of our motives and stub- 
bornly refused to learn. 

When the campaign closed, of the 1,152 illit- 
erates in the county, only 23 were left, and these 
were classified; six were blind or had defective 
sight; five were invalids languishing on beds 
of pain; six were imbeciles and epileptics, two 
had moved in as the session closed and four 
could not be induced to learn. 

One of the teachers who had taught fifty-six 
people in her own and other districts to read 
and write, went into the home of one of these 
stubborn four after the campaign closed and 
paid her an exorbitant price for board. She 
induced this old woman to teach her to knit, 



56 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

and one day when they were sitting and knit- 
ting together and had become fast and familiar 
friends and the time was ripe, she said to her, 
**Now yonVe taught me something valuable, 
something, in fact, that I've always wanted to 
know. I'm going to return the favor. I'm 
going to teach you to read and write, so that you 
can write to your son in Washington, and the 
one in Indiana and the one in Illinois. I know 
how glad they'll be to have letters from their 
mother's own hand, and how glad you'll be to 
read letters from them." 

While she was speaking, she was placing the 
material in the old woman's hands, and, almost 
before she knew it she was copying *^E" the 
first letter in her name. 

One morning shortly afterward, that little 
teacher knocked at my door; I opened and she 
entered. Without a word, but with shining eyes, 
she laid that old woman's first letter on my desk. 



CHAPTEE VIII 

THE MOVEMENT EXTENDS TO THE WHOLE STATE OP 

KENTUCKY 

Twenty-five other counties in the State were, 
by this time, having moonlight schools, and 
whether it was in a Bluegrass Connty among the 
tenant class, in the Purchase among the farm- 
ers, in the coal regions among the miners or in 
mill or distillery sections, there was the same 
response; men and women thronged to the 
schools, strove to make up for the time they 
had lost, and pleaded for a longer term when 
the session closed. It seemed that the State 
should extend its aid to these unfortunate men 
and women and should support the volunteer 
teachers in their patriotic efforts. So I opened 
up a correspondence with the Governor on the 
subject of an Illiteracy Commission. The first 
letter read as follows: 

57 



58 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Morehead, Ky. 
Dec. 16, 1913. 
Governor James B. McCreary, 

Frankfort, Ky. 
My dear Governor McCreary: — 

I am taking the liberty of addressing 
you upon the subject of having an Illiteracy 
Commission formed by legislative act to 
study the condition of adult illiterates in 
our State and to give men and women their 
freedom from this bondage; also, to place 
our State in a better light before the world. 
For years there has been a constant cry 
about Kentucky's appalling percentage of 
illiteracy. It has been repeatedly declared 
that we are near the bottom of the literacy 
scale. 

The purpose of forming such a commis- 
sion would be to promote voluntary effort 
on the part of the teachers and others and 
to co-operate with those who are already 
making an effort. Many teachers have al- 
ready volunteered, but they need guidance 
and inspiration and other teachers need to 
be called upon to volunteer. 

We have taught over a thousand men and 
women in Kowan County during the past 
three years, and now some twenty-five coun- 
ties are putting forth an effort along this 
line. I have hundreds of letters which dem- 



THE MOVEMENT EXTENDS 59 

onstrate the fact that men and women can 
learn to read and write in a very short time 
after their interest is quickened. 

I have letters from octogenarians besides 
many middle-aged and yonnger men and 
women. What has been done in Eowan 
County in three years in reducing and al- 
most wiping out her illiteracy, can be done 
in Kentucky during the next six years — 
by the time the Federal census is taken. 

This movement started in Kentucky, and 
Kentucky is the State which should take the 
initiative and form a ^commission to ad- 
vance this important work. I earnestly 
request that you will include in your mes- 
* sage to the Legislature the suggestion that 
such a commission be formed. 

Hoping that you will see the expediency 
of this matter, and believing that you will 
istand for the enlightenment of the 208,084 
benighted Kentuckians who cannot read or 
write, I am. 

Yours most respectfully, 

By return mail came Governor McCreary's 
answer : 

Your letter, dated December 16, 1913, 
was received this morning. 

I thoroughly endorse aU you say on the 
subject of an ** Illiteracy Commission" 



60 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

'^formed by legislative act to study the con- 
dition of adult illiteracy in onr State and to 
give men and women their freedom from 
this bondage." 

I congratulate yon on the strong points 
presented in your letter, and I will be glad 
to assist you and to encourage any move- 
ment which has for its object the elimina- 
tion of illiteracy from our State and the 
education of all our people. 

I will refer in my message to an **Hlit- 
eracy Commission'' and the good work that 
can be performed by such a commission. 

After some further exchange of letters with 
the Governor on the subject, on February 19, 
1914, he wrote : 

I congratulate you heartily, on the unani- 
mous vote of both branches of the General 
Assembly in favor of the bill providing for 
the Kentucky Hliteracy Commission. Your 
address and the strong arguments in favor 
of this much-needed legislation caused its 
passage without opposition. 

There is nothing in life more pleasant 
than to feel that you are living for the 
benefit of humanity and to contribute to the 
welfare of men and women. 



THE MOVEMENT EXTENDS 61 

I respect and admire you for devoting 
yonr intellect and energies to your good 
work among adult illiterates in Kentucky. 

The Governor appointed J. G. Crabbe, Pres- 
ident of the Eastern Kentucky State Normal, 
H. H. Cherry, President of the Western Ken- 
tucky State Normal, Miss Ella Lewis, Superin- 
tendent of Grayson County schools and myself 
as members of the newly created Illiteracy 
Commission. The State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction was a member ex officio. 

Here was a Commission new to the world, 
without chart, guide or compass, starting to 
attack adult illiteracy, a thing supposed to be 
invincible. Nobody had even undertaken to 
abolish adult illiteracy before, so there was no 
precedent and no literature. The State had not 
appropriated a dollar for the Commission's 
work and there was not a dollar in hand. 
Scoffers stood on every corner predicting dire 
failure. Illiteracy statistics were challenged 
and disputed and much energy that could have 
been used in the fight on illiteracy was used by 



62 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

the opposition in tr3dng to disprove the statis- 
tics, while the proof was lying buried in a 
vault in the Federal Census Bureau at Wash- 
ington. The enlightening of public opinion, the 
quickening of the missionary spirit, the arous- 
ing of state pride and the opening of pocket- 
books to finance the movement were some of 
the tasks which confronted this Commission 
of volunteers besides the actual instruction of 
illiterates. 

The public school teachers being already at 
the helm were in better position to influence 
the people than any others. They must be the 
soldiers in this bloodless war against illiteracy 
but soldiers in the trenches must have organized 
and intelligent support from those back home. 
It was everybody's war and volunteers from 
every profession and every walk of life must 
be enlisted. 

The Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs 
led out. In recognition of the service rendered 
by those pioneer teachers of Kowan County, 
they sent them on a vacation trip to Niagara 



THE MOVEMENT EXTENDS 63 

Falls and to visit the cities in the northern part 
of the United States and Canada. It was a 
novel thing to see public-school teachers travel- 
ing in a private car at the expense of the grate- 
ful people of a State and being sung to and 
feted along the route. It served the purpose of 
more than a merited reward; it was a stimulus 
to other teachers and inspired a large number 
to volunteer. 

The Colonial Dames and other women's or- 
ganizations made a whirlwind campaign for 
funds; editors agitated through editorials and 
news items on illiteracy; ministers celebrated, 
"No Illiteracy Sunday'' in the churches and at- 
tacked the evil in sermon, song and prayer ; 
bankers were on the alert for illiterates who 
made their mark on checks and made a cam- 
paign to teach each to read and write; jailers 
put their prisoners to the book; traveling sales- 
men carried the slogan of the crusade as stickers 
on their baggage and talked '*no illiteracy" 
as enthusiastically as they talked dry-goods, 
notions, boots and shoes; college students 



64 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

placarded the walls of the colleges with illit- 
eracy statistics, used illiteracy as the theme for 
their finals and each pledged to go home and 
teach someone to read and write. We even 
enlisted the politicians and put them to some 
use. A galaxy of speakers, headed by the Gov- 
ernor and State officials and composed of men 
and women prominent in politics and in other 
professions, went out over the State at their 
own expense fighting illiteracy and urging the 
establishment of moonlight schools. What these 
prominent ones advocated so openly, many great 
souls carried further in some quiet way, either 
by organizing a moonlight school in some iso- 
lated spot, by talking for the cause at some 
country store, or by going over the hill or across 
the field to teach some neighbor to read and 
write. 

The Governor had issued a proclamation 
against illiteracy, and much of this activity was 
in response to it. As the first proclamation 
of its kind in history, it is a paper of unusual 
interest, and is here reproduced: 



THE MOVEMENT EXTENDS 65 

At the last meeting of the General Assem- 
bly of Kentucky, I recommended that a 
Kentucky Illiteracy Commission be ap- 
pointed and authorized to inquire into and 
alleviate the conditions of the adult illit- 
erates in the State, and Mrs. Cora Wilson 
Stewart, Chairman, Miss Ella Lewis, Doc- 
tor J. G. Crabbe, and Doctor H. H. Cherry 
were appointed as members of the Commis- 
sion. This Commission has inaugurated a 
State campaign, Mrs. Stewart being the 
accepted leader in the efforts to stamp out 
illiteracy through moonlight schools and 
other methods. 

Upon their call for volunteers about one 
thousand teachers offered their services 
and are teaching or making arrangement 
to teach at night, and others are daily offer- 
ing their services. 

The aim of the Kentucky Illiteracy Com- 
mission is noble and exalted and of the 
greatest benefit, and there is no subject of 
more importance or of more far-reaching 
influence than the elimination of illiteracy 
from our State, We should educate all of 
our people, those under twenty-one years 
of age, and those upward of twenty-one 
years of age. The perpetuity of our free 
institutions depends upon the intelligence 
and virtue of the people. 



66' MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

There are 208,084 men and women in onr 
State who cannot read and write, and of 
whose intelligent efforts along the lines of 
education, religion and general develop- 
ment and advancement the State is de- 
prived, and this constitutes a deplorable 
situation and presents a great and urgent 
need which should be promptly met and 
relieved. 



Instruction should be offered to the mothers 
for their own sake and for the sake of the 
children and the benefit of the State; it 
should be offered to the fathers for their 
own sake and for the sake of increasing 
their earning capacity and of promoting 
home comforts, and for the sake of a more 
intelligent exercise of the right of suffrage 
so as to help maintain good government 
for the State. Instruction should be of- 
fered to the young men and young women 
who have missed opportunities earlier in 
life, but may yet take hold of instruction 
and make achievements. 

The instruction of all the illiterates in the 
State will not only give to Kentucky a 
higher rank, educationally, among the 
states, but will give her a new and distinct 
position as the first Commonwealth which 



THE MOVEMENT EXTENDS 67 

iias ever attempted to accomplish such a 
great and important work. 

I call upon all to help in the cause of educa- 
tion of those under twenty-one years of age 
and those upward of twenty-one years of 
age, and I appeal to every public and 
private school teacher, every professor in 
our high schools, colleges and universities, 
all public of&cials, every representative of 
the press, every professional man, every 
farmer, mechanic and business man and 
every woman who loves the blessings of 
education, and to all who desire to promote 
religion, science, literature or art, or to 
advance progress or improvement in any 
line, all who desire to lessen crime, to help 
in the great work of teaching adult illit- 
erates, both male and female, to read and 
write and spell and to encourage them to 
seek knowledge and to add to their acquire- 
ments through moonlight schools in illumi- 
nated school houses where education is as 
free as the air we breathe, and where all 
may come to edify themselves and to drink 
of the water of life freely. 

In testimony whereof, I have caused these 
letters to be made patent and the seal of 
the Commonwealth to be hereunto affixed. 
Done at Frankfort the 21st day of Septem- 



68 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

ber, in the year of onr Lord one thousand 
nine hundred and fourteen, and in the one 
hundred and twenty-third year of the com- 
monwealth. 

James B. McCeeary, 
Governor. 
C. E. Crecelius, 
Secretary of State. 
(Seal) 

Cecil H. VanSant, 
Assistant Secretary of State. 

The United States Bureau of Education, at 
this time, made Kentucky's campaign against 
illiteracy the occasion for a second notice to 
the public. In this bulletin, which was headed 
** Kentucky Wars on Illiteracy," the Commis- 
sioner of Education said: 

It will be a part of the lasting glory of 
the State of Kentucky that it has taken 
the lead in this movement. It is the first 
state to offer to all the people, of whatever 
age, an opportunity to learn to read and 
write, and thus break away from the prison 
wall of sense and silence within which the 
illiterate man and woman must live. What- 
ever else Governor James B. McCreary 



THE MOVEMENT EXTENDS 69 

may do for Ms State, this proclamation 
and his recommendation to the legislature 
that it provide for the appointment of an 
Illiteracy Commission mnst always be ac- 
counted among his wisest and most im- 
portant acts. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE FIRST TEXT-BOOKS FOR ADULT ILLITERATES 

Attractive and easy texts and school supplies 
for adults wMcli would enable them to learn 
quickly and would stimulate them to further 
endeavor was a manifest need. The little news- 
paper had been valuable for a county campaign, 
but was not so easy to carry out for the State, 
with its varying conditions and its remote sec- 
tions to be reached. 

Someone had to provide the tools with which 
these men and women could dig their way out 
of the mental dungeon in which they were im- 
prisoned. A reader was prepared for them and 
brought out as quickly as possible. The first 
lesson was : 

Can you read? 

Can you write? 

Can you read and write? 

I can read. 

I can write. 

I can read and write. 

70 



THE FIRST TEXT-BOOKS 71 

TMs lesson contained but six words. It ap- 
pealed to the ego, referring as it did to the 
student himself, and related to the activity in 
which he was, at the moment, engaged. 

As the lessons progressed, farm improve-* 
ment, good roads, civics, health, home econom- 
ies, horticulture, sanitation and thrift were 
woven into them, and each lesson accomplished 
a double purpose, the primary one of teaching 
the pupil to read, and at the same time that 
of imparting instruction in the things that 
vitally affected him in his daily life. It was a 
correlation of subjects which, in adult education 
is even more necessary than in that of the child. 

The lessons on the road, placed side by side, 
compared the advantage of the good and the 
disadvantage of the bad roads. The first was : 

This is a road. 

It is a good road. 

It will save my time. 

It will save my team. 

It will save my wagon. 

The good road is my friend. 

I will work for the good road. 



72 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

On the opposite page appeared this lesson : 

See this bad road. 
It will waste my time. 
It will hurt my team. 
It will hurt my wagon. 
The bad road is my foe. 
I will get rid of the bad road. 

The key-note sentence in each lesson appeared 
in script form at the bottom of the page and 
was to be copied by each student a number of 
times. 

When a man has repeatedly written the sen- 
tence: **The good road is my friend. I will 
work for the good road," and *'The bad road 
is my foe. I will get rid of the bad road," he 
becomes something of an advocate of good roads 
through suggestion, if through nothing else. 
The copying of the script sentences in the book 
pledged the student to progress and impressed 
upon him cerfain evils with fine psychological 
effect. In the reading lessons on voting, the 
key-note sentence to be copied was: **The man 
who sells his vote sells his honor." 



THE FIRST TEXT-BOOKS 73 

This type of copy which was carried through- 
out the book had, like the reading lessons, a 
double purpose ; the necessary practice in writ- 
ing and the dwelling on and emphasizing of 
some vital truth. These took the place of the 
axioms commonly used in the copy-books for 
day schools. Instead of writing, **Many men 
of many nunds. Many men of many kinds,'' 
these folk wrote, **I will buUd a silo," '*I will 
rotate my crops," "It is a waste of time and 
money to raise scrub stock," "We must protect 
the forest," "I will take a newspaper and read 
it," "I will keep my money in the bank." 

Taxation is the cause of much unintelligent 
complaint, and some enlightenment on the sub- 
ject seemed worth while. One lesson read: 

I shall pay my taxes. 

I pay a tax on my home. 

I pay a tax on my land. 

I pay a tax on my cattle. 

I pay a tax on my money. 

I pay a tax on many other things. 

Where does all this money go? 



74 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

It goes to keep up the schools. 

It goes to keep up the roads. 

It goes to keep down crime. 

It goes to keep down disease. 

I am glad that I have a home to pay taxes on. 

The climax of this lesson was truly as much 
a surprise to the readers as any fiction. As 
they read of the many things on which they 
paid taxes and the query, *^ Where does all this 
money go?" they expected denunciation to fol- 
low, such as the demagogues revel in to con- 
fuse and inflame the minds of ignorant voters. 
Instead they found a reminder and an explana- 
tion of the benefits derived from wise and just 
taxation. 

One page in the reader was consecrated to 
the tooth-brush, which was pictured at the top 
in all its pristine beauty. This lesson was as 
necessary in some places as the fire-drill is in 
the city schools. 

One of our field workers had found on her 
visits to the different homes in a certain county 
that brushing her teeth was a performance 



THE FIRST TEXT-BOOKS 75 

viewed with wonder, and one that never failed 
to draw a crowd. At one place where the chil- 
dren of the household gathered round watching 
this performance one little girl let her curiosity 
get the better of her and called to her mother 
indoors, *^ Mother, what's she adoin'!" 

The mother answered in a humiliated tone, 
**0h, hush, honey, she's a brushin' her teeth. 
When you git to be a school teacher you kin 
brush yours." 

The farmers were partial to the lessons on 
conservation of the soil such as, '^Eun and tell 
the farmer that the brook is stealing his soil"; 
the lumberman preferred the one on keeping 
down the forest fires, and so the different lessons 
appealed to different students. I had occasion 
to note their preferences when at the reading 
contests in various counties each student was 
permitted to choose the lesson that he would 
read. 

In Cumberland County in a contest among the 
pupils of the colored moonlight schools, "Uncle 
Ike," a great character among them, was given 



76 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

the honor of being the first to read. He mounted 
the platform with book open in hand and began 
the reading of a selection which seemed very 
appropriate. 

I will take my bath every day. 

It will keep me fresh and sweet and clean. 

In Clay County, another of the mountain 
counties, a large crowd of men and women 
gathered for a contest. Among them was a tall, 
lank, under-nourished man, who rose and with a 
look at his wife that carried indictment read 
this lesson with peculiar emphasis: 

God made man. 

Woman makes bread. 

It takes the bread 

That woman makes, 

To sustain the man 

That God made. 

But the bread 

That some women make. 

Would not sustain any man 

That God ever made. 

In the same contest a little woman with a baby 
in her arms rose to read and in a gracious 



THE FIRST TEXT-BOOKS 77; 

manner wortliy of a Frenchwoman said, ''This 
is my favorite lesson," and read the author's 
letter to the pupils of the moonlight schools : 

Frankfort, Ky. 
Nov. 5, 1915. 
Dear Friends: 

This little book was written especially 
for the dear boys and girls of the moon- 
light schools, not the youngest perhaps, 
but the finest school children on earth. 

You have set a fine example for both 
young and old, and one which many will 
surely follow. 

You have been faithfid and have finished 
the first of the series of the Country Life 
Eeaders. The second is now ready for you, 
and the author hopes that you will read it 
with profit and pleasure. 

The world has great need of men and 
women who read well and write well. These 
are two of the greatest arts, and remember 
that they can be acquired only by constant 
practice. 

The preparation of this book has been 
truly a labor of love. If you have received 
any benefit from it, the author is fully re- 
paid. 

Yours sincerely, 

Cora Wilson Stewart. 



78 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

TMs reader, known as the Country Life 
Reader, First Book, was followed by others in 
the series, but none could do for the illiterates 
what this first book did for them, and none to 
them would ever be so precious. 

The reader ended, as did the later ones, with 
appropriate Bible selections. The climax of 
each book was a Thanksgiving hymn. 

The Moonlight School Tablets in their outer 
appearance were blue with red binding, the 
identical color scheme of the old ** blue-back 
speller," which, to my mind, was one of the 
things that made that book so popular. Its 
cover of heavenly blue with the rich contrasting 
binding of scarlet prepossessed many a begin- 
ner in its favor before they had even opened the 
book and peeped inside. 

The tablet contained, first, a white sheet of 
blotting paper into which the name of the 
student was to be written in indented letters a 
number of times, that his first writing exercise 
might be his name, the thing which he craved 
most to learn. Next, there were sheets of del- 



THE FIRST TEXT-BOOKS 79 

kate pink, violet, yellow and green blotting 
papers filled with, snnken letters wliicli the 
students traced in grooves to gain form qnickly, 
having already acquired facility of movement 
in their daily duties, by constant use of fingers 
for manual work. In this respect they had the 
advantage of the child who must learn move- 
ment as well as form, from the start. 

These colored sheets with their sunken letters 
that kept the pencil in grooves while writing had 
a remarkable fascination for these people, many 
of whose lives were devoid of color and interest. 
Tracing in the grooves permitted of no awkward 
or straggling letters, and this was most encour- 
aging to them. The remainder of this begin- 
ner's tablet was composed of plain, smooth 
paper, widely spaced, on which they wrote the 
script copies from the Country Life Reader, 

On their pencils was printed the slogan of 
the Illiteracy Campaign, so even these were 
useful for more than one purpose. One woman 
wrote, *'IVe read everything in my book and 
even what's printed on my pencil." 



80 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

The moonlight schools have many lessons to 
teach besides reading and writing. Their mes- 
sage is broad and deep and high. What they 
teach is fittingly expressed in this poem of L. H. 
Bailey's: 

I teach 

The earth and soil 
To them that toil; 
The hill and fen 
To common men 
Who live right here. 

The plants that grow, 
The winds that blow, 
The streams that run, 
In rain and sun, 
Throughout the year. 

And then I lead 
Through wood and mead, 
Through mold and sod. 
Out unto God, 
With love and cheer, 
I teach! 



CHAPTER X 

MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS IN WAB TIME 

In the spring of 1917 the War came and the 
illiterates faced new problems. Illiterate boys 
were swept, along with others, into the army. 
Hitherto they had been barred from army ser- 
vice, but now the War Department removed 
this restriction and let them in. 

The first registration for army service was 
for men from 21 to 31 years of age, and took 
place on Jnne 5, 1917. The Kentucky Illiteracy 
Commission immediately turned its attention to 
illiterate soldiers and concentrated its energies 
on helping to win the War. In three weeks' 
time the names and addresses had been secured 
of aU those in the various counties who had 
registered by mark. The moonlight schools 
were not scheduled to open until late in August, 
but a special session was opened for these illit- 

81 



82 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

erate soldiers that they might learn to read and 
write before they were sent to camp. This call 
was sent ont to the teachers through the press 
of the State: 

To The Teachers of Kentucky: 

An unusual situation confronts those en- 
gaged in teaching in this State. It is one 
which will put to the test your patriotism 
and your devotion to education, as well. 

30,000 young men in Kentucky signed 
their registration cards on June 5th by 
mark, being unable to sign their names. 
These are not confined to any locality, but 
are scattered throughout every county in 
the State. They are not colored, but 
mainly white. 

These figures must stagger every thought- 
ful Kentuckian. They would shame us to 
the point of concealment, but for the need 
of these young men for inunediate relief. 
Concealment works no cure. Only prompt 
and decisive action can do that. 

These young men are not to blame for 
their misfortune. The enlightened citizens 
of Kentucky, who have tolerated lax com- 
pulsory attendance laws, and have submit- 
ted to the non- enforcement of such school 
attendance laws as are on our statute books, 



IN WAE TIME 83 

are mostly to blame. But there is no time 
to waste in crying * 'shame" or in fixing 
the blame. This is a time to atone in such 
measure as we may. 

It is unfair that these young men should 
be torn from their homes and dear ones 
and sent across the water to fight your bat- 
tles and mine without being able to read a 
letter or to write a line back home. Next 
to actual engagement in battle, the most 
momentous event in the life of a soldier 
is the arrival of a letter from home. To 
his anxious mother a letter from her soldier 
boy is a comfort above price. No third 
person, however willing, can convey the 
sentiments and secrets of these two to each 
other. 

The Y. M. C. A. provides an abundance 
of reading and writing material, but these 
boys can only gaze upon it hungrily as a 
thing they crave to use, but cannot. Such 
printed reminders, posted about the Y. M. 
C. A. camp, as '* Write home," **Have you 
written to mother today r' are unintelligible 
to them. 

A Committee hands to each boy a pocket 
testament as he passes through the port of 
New York to embark for the war zone. 
30,000 Kentucky boys can get no comfort 
from the Bible, even when it is given to 
them. 



84 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

These young men may be called into 
camp September 1st. Beginning July 
23rd, we can give them a six weeks elemen- 
tary course in the moonlight schools, such 
as will enable them to read and write their 
own letters, and to peruse elementary books 
and to read most items in the newspapers. 
Such as cannot attend the moonlight schools 
can be taught individually at home. ^ Public 
school teachers, who are already in their 
schools have the best opportunity. Every 
one of these I am sure will gladly serve, 
but in counties where the schools are not 
in session and where the teacher is not on 
the ground, former teachers and educated 
citizens can start night classes in the public 
school-houses. 

There may have been a time when these 
young men were sensitive about this afflic- 
tion, or when they were indifferent, but that 
time is past. It is an hour of crisis with 
them, and they will be seeking teachers as 
earnestly as teachers could, possibly, seek 
them. 

It is the duty of every public school 
teacher in Kentucky to volunteer. Some 
have already done so on the mere sugges- 
tion of such a call. Some even who are 
not teachers have volunteered. It is a high 
privilege to render to these unfortunate 
ones and to our State and Nation this 



IN WAR TIME 85 

service. We may have been unable to in- 
vest in Liberty Loan Bonds. It may not 
be ours to follow the boys to France to 
minister to them under the Red Cross, but 
we can add to their comfort, their self- 
respect and efficiency by giving them this 
training before they go. 

Shall Kentucky Send Thirty Thou- 
sand Illiterates to France? God forbid! 
Why should she send any? Hasn't she an 
Illiteracy Commission, 11,000 public school 
teachers and as patriotic people as ever 
the sun shone on? To the guns, yes, every 
man of them — even though with their afflic- 
tion they might well be exempt from mil- 
itary duty, I believe — ^but to the books first, 
and then they'll go to the guns more con- 
tent and with less embarrassment and less 
handicap. 

Let the lights burn for the soldier boys 
on the evening of July 23rd in every rural, 
village and city school-house in the State! 
Write or wire that you will volunteer and 
let us provide you with books and plans. 

Yours sincerely, 

Cora Wilson Stewart, 

President Kentucky Illiteracy Commission. 

Frankfort, Ky. 



86 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Those who had attended the moonlight schools 
had always been provided with free books, both 
as an indncement and as a provision to insnre 
snccess. Certainly the same generous treat- 
ment mnst be accorded the soldier stndents. 

A campaign for funds was organized, and 
in keeping with the spirit of the times this was 
military in form. Eleven men of prominence 
from the eleven congressional districts in the 
state were summoned to Louisville to take the 
lead and the responsibility in the campaign to 
provide illiterate soldiers with books. Not one 
refused. Leaving their law offices, the courts, 
their banks and corporations they came. They 
became the eleven division commanders, and 
with their county captains, precinct lieutenants 
and numerous faithful privates, made the 
speediest finance campaign on record, and car- 
ried their part of the enterprise through with 
success. 

Teachers volunteered faster than we could 
assign and equip them. Some were out of the 
state, it being their vacation time, and from 



IN WAR TIME 87 

their retreats up in the mountains, on the lakes 
and even from Canada they came hurrying 
home. 

New text-books were written to meet the need 
and to partake of the spirit of the times. The 
peaceful lessons on building roads, spraying 
fruit trees, rotating crops and conserving soil 
were not for men like these who were putting 
such things behind them. Theirs must be les- 
sons martial in tone, so some were prepared 
centering around *'men and guns, flags, camps, 
tents, kaisers and kings.'' To make their train- 
ing as much an in'spiration as possible their 
books and school supplies were given the ap- 
pearance of war. Their covers were gay in 
patriotic colors, even the pencils being in red, 
white and blue. A soldier with his gun was 
the cover design, and he appeared in all his 
glory, wreathed about with a border of flags. 
The Soldier's First Booh and Soldier's Tablet 
were the names given to their (readers and 
writing books. 



88 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Brave though our countrymen are, there is no 
question but that many an American boy was 
hesitant in the early days of the War about going 
to fight on foreign soil. The first lesson in the 
Soldier's First Book had in it a trace of psy- 
chology, as well as a content through which 
men were supposed to master timely words and 
sentences : 



I go. 

I go to war. 

Do you go? 

Do you go to war? 

Yes, I go to war. 

iYes, we go to war. 



There was considerable debate at first as to 
the part which the United States should play 
in the War, some believing that her remoteness 
from the theatre of action would practically 
prohibit her sending anything but money, muni- 
tions and food. '*The man with the hoe" was 
acclaimed a patriot, so a lesson that delicately 



^ IN WAR TIME 89 

suggested a preference for the gun was pro- 
duced : 

The war is on. 
Some will fight with gun. 
Some will fight with hoe. 
All will fight with gun or ho0, 
I will fight with gun. 
I"ou may fight with hoe. 

To inspire something of enthusiasm for the 
approaching life in camp, about which there 
were many rumors, some distressing and some 
vague, this lesson was prepared: 

Is this the camp? 
Yes, this is the camp. 
See the flag! 
See the tents! 
See the men! 
See the guns! 
-This is fine! 

The wisdom and justice of our nation's course 
was being disputed in those early days before 
sentiment for the War had crystallized, and the 
first reasons ever given some of the fighting 



90 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

men for our being at war with Germany were 
learned in a simple lesson like tMs in the moon- 
light schools: 



Why are we at war? 

To keep our country free. 

To keep other peoples free. 

To make the world safe to live in. 

To stop the rule of kings. 

To put an end to war. 

The purpose of the next lesson is obvious 



See the flag! 

It is our flag! 

Our flag never knew defeat! 

Why did our flag never know defeat? 

Because our flag has always stood for right. 



Camp life with its crowds and complexities 
would need some introduction to them, especially 
the features which would immediately affect 
ihem. Each man would have an early interest 
in the orders of the day, posted up around thef 



IN WAR TIME 91 

camp on bulletin boards, so this lesson referring 
to their duties was thought applicable. 

Let us read this. 

What is it? 

It is the bulletin board. 

What is it about? 

It tells when one is on detail. 

What is that? 

It is one's duty for the day. 

Am I on duty today? 

Yes, you are on guard duty. 

Are you on? 

Yes, I am on kitchen police. 

Undoubtedly, there would be situations in 
camp requiring a sense of humor. A lesson 
which prepared them somewhat for the blunders 
and jests of their rookie days was this : 

Let us play a joke on a rookie. 

All right, what shall it be? 

Send him after a key. 

A key to what? 

A key to the parade ground. 

Would that be a joke? 

Can't you see it? 

No, I cannot. 

Did you ever see a key to a field? 

No, I see. The joke is on me. 



92 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

On the liot smnmer evenings of Jnly and 
August, 1917, Kentucky boys, subject to army 
service, wended their way to the moonlight 
schools. These men had a new and pow- 
erful incentive. Many of them had never known 
a week's absence from home, and some had 
journeyed no farther away than the county 
seat, to return to their own roof -trees at night. 
They now faced separation from all who were 
dear, separation by a distance of three thou- 
sand miles, and in a situation of constant 
danger which would stir every emotion of the 
heart and demand some connection with the 
ones at home. Their extremity was great, and 
they realized it. This was evident by the num- 
bers that came, the grim determination with 
which they attacked their books and their un- 
concealed joy over a simple lesson learned. 
Their teachers had a feeling of tenderness 
toward them and a desire to help them that 
amounted to exaltation equal to that, no doubt, 
felt by any who served and sacrificed during the 
War. Knowledge was never so glorified as it 



IN WAR TIME 93 

was those nights in the moonlight schools, when 
the soldiers clutched at it as hnngry men for 
bread and the teachers bestowed it as manna 
with heavenly grace. 

New speed records were made in the time 
required to learn to read and write. The men 
in the first draft who had missed the moonlight 
schools were met by teachers at the station 
where they entrained and rendered ''first aid" 
in reading and writing for a day or an hour as 
the time would permit. It was in one of these 
first-aid classes that the champion record was 
made. A bridegroom, torn from the arms of 
his bride whom he had married but the day 
before, sought to learn in one day's time that 
he might write a love letter back to her. Not 
the next week nor on the morrow did he desire 
to write her, but it must be done that very day. 
According to the poet, 

Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid, 
Some banished lover or some captive maid. 

60 surely it would not fail him now. From 



94 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

early morning until his train left that night he 
strove to master script, and not in vain. Before 
his train left, he wrote the letter, beginning it 
*^Dear Darling," and his exnltant joy must 
have been equalled by her happiness and sur- 
prise when the letter arrived. 

In spite of the vigorous campaign waged, 
some were missed, and it was no uncommon 
thing during the late summer of 1917 for men 
to be arrested for their failure to register and 
brought before Federal officials. It was then 
disclosed that they were illiterate and did not 
know of the registration or the draft, and some 
of them did not even know that the country was 
at war. This added to the expense of the Gov- 
ernment and to the burdens and annoyance of 
officials, but these were nothing in comparison 
with the humiliation and the anguish suffered 
by the innocent victims and their families at 
home. 

The exemption boards found difficulty in test- 
ing the eyes of illiterate soldiers. No provision 
having been made they invented devices of their 






LETTER FROM MAN OP DRAFT AGE 



IN WAR TIME 95 

own. Some boards substituted pictures for the 
lettered cards customarily used by oculists. 
Stalwart, finely developed men stood up before 
draft boards and answered questions like these : 
*'Do you see this little dog or can you see best 
the larger dog above T' **Do you see the cat 
in this line best or the one below?" 

A second and third session of the moonlight 
schools for illiterate soldiers followed the first. 
Nowhere else in America were illiterate regis- 
trants being taught. The camps were in proc- 
ess of construction. The time between the reg- 
istration of soldiers and their encampment — 
some three months or more — could profitably 
have been employed by illiterates of draft age 
in every State in learning to read and write. 
The records revealed that there were 700,000 
men between the ages of 21 and 31 in the United 
States who registered by mark. 

Kentucky men entered Camp Taylor at Louis- 
ville with books in their hands and determina- 
tion to learn burning in their hearts. Many of 
them had had a taste, at least, of knowledge. 



96 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

and even when they had learned no more at the 
first aid stations than to write their names, had 
been provided with school supplies, pledged to 
continue their lessons, and placed under the in- 
struction of some educated member of their 
group who promised to continue the teaching 
when they reached camp. In many cases they 
were accompanied by their moonlight school, 
teachers, who had, themselves, been drafted 
out of their schools. 

Some, in spite of all precautions, escaped the 
moonlight schools and entered camp illiterate. 
Soldiers from Indiana and Illinois were quar- 
tered at Camp Taylor, also, many of whom were 
unable to read and write. The experiences of 
illiterate soldiers at Camp Taylor were identi- 
cal, no doubt, with those in all the other train- 
ing camps. It was a story of humiliation, 
handicap and discouragement and in many cases 
black and bitter despair. Their utter bewilder- 
ment added to the difficulties of an already com- 
plex situation, and so reduced the efficiency of 
the company or the squad that their presence 



IN WAR TIME 97 

was resented by some officers, who at every op- 
portunity and upon the slightest pretext shifted 
the illiterates from their own to another com- 
pany. 

The tables in the Y. M. C. A. hnt spread with 
sheets npon sheets of white paper and envelopes 
were to the illiterate soldiers as a feast to which 
they had not been bidden. One soldier ap- 
proached another timidly at a Y. M. C. A. writ- 
ing table and said, **Will you back a dozen en- 
velopes for me to my mother, please ?'' 

^^ Certainly," replied the other, *'but why a 
dozen? Are you planning to write her every 
day? You must be a dutiful son." 

'*No, these are to last me a year," the soldier 
confessed. *^I promised my mother that I'd 
get some envelopes backed and that once a 
month I'd slip a dollar bill in one and mail it 
to her and by that she'd know that I was still 
alive. ' ' 

Some were too proud to confess their illit- 
eracy or to ask for help, and their difficulties 
were multiplied. Some carried letters in their 



98 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

pockets for days before they could overcome 
their pride sufficiently to ask someone to read 
them. One soldier was sent to the guard house 
for disobeying orders, and after he had served 
his sentence, it was disclosed that he had dis- 
obeyed his orders only because he could not 
read them. 

Meanwhile, the moonlight schools and first 
aid classes were *^ leavening the whole," and an 
illiteracy campaign was finally in progress at 
Camp Taylor under government auspices, with 
the Kentucky Hliteracy Commission as the base 
of supplies. The war against illiteracy in this 
camp was the inspiration for others which soon 
followed its example. Camp Shelby at Hat- 
tiesburg, Mississippi, where Kentucky troops 
were being shifted from time to time, was the 
next to organize, and though no preparation 
had been made by the Government in the begin- 
ning for this educational emergency, the most 
pressing of the War, the need was being realized 
in every camp, and soon illiterate negroes were 
being taught at Camp Lee in Virginia, illiterate 



IN WAR TIME 99 

foreigners at Camp Dix, New Jersey, and illit- 
erates of every race and class in tlie other camps 
throngliout the nation, and even overseas. 

A Bible was presented to each American sol- 
dier by certain organizations as they embarked 
for France, and as the first troops began to 
move overseas, the President sent them this 
message : 

To THE Soldiers of the National Ahmy: 

You are undertaking a great duty. The 
heart of the whole country is with you. 
Everything that you do will be watched 
with the deepest interest and with the 
deepest solicitude not only by those near 
and dear to you, but by the whole nation 
besides. For this great war draws us all 
together, makes us all comrades and 
brothers, as all true Americans felt them- 
selves to be when we first made good our 
national independence. The eyes of all the 
world wiU be upon you, because you are in 
some special sense the soldiers of freedom. 

Let it be your pride, therefore, to show 
all men everywhere not only what good 
soldiers you are, but also what good men 
you are, keeping yourselves fit and straight 
in everything, and pure and clean through 



100 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

and through. Let us set for ourselves a 
standard so high that it will be a glory to 
live up to it, and then let us live up to it 
and add a new laurel to the crown of Amer- 
ica. My affectionate confidence goes with 
you in every battle and every test. God 
keep and guide you! 

The White House, 
Washington. Woodkow Wilson. 

But, alas, there were many among them who 
could not read the Word of God or the Presi- 
dent's benediction. 

By the spring of 1918, America had many men 
overseas, and homesickness was reported to be 
acute, and in some cases even fatal among them. 
General Pershing, Commander of the American 
Expeditionary Forces, realized that there was 
something more essential in keeping up the 
morale of these boys than the socks, sweaters, 
candy and tobacco with which the American 
people showered them and so he issued this 
order to the women at home : 

The women of America must regard 
themselves as thoroughly militarized. They 



IN WAR TIME 101 

must consider themselves as real soldiers 
and take orders from their of&cers here 
and obey them without question. Any 
woman who has a husband, brother, sweet- 
heart, or relative in foreign service should 
write, write, write long, cheerful letters 
telling everything that happens in the old 
home town. The men are hungry for news 
and the things which seem like trivial hap- 
penings at home "will be of the greatest 
interest to the men. 

The order which I would send to the 
women of America is to work and write. 

All who returned from the War Zone, lec- 
turers, propagandists and others, brought the 
same message — '^The boys need letters, letters; 
write, write, write." The sad news came of 
boys dying of homesickness in the army over- 
seas. It was not indifference or negligence on 
the part of the soldiers' families that caused 
them to withhold letters, but in many cases it 
was the inability to write. 

Here was a work for the moonlight schools 
scarcely less urgent than that of teaching the 
boys themselves, so sessions were begun for 
the wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts of 



102 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

soldiers, and for the men over thirty-one who 
were subject to the next draft. The main pur- 
pose of these sessions was to teach those who 
enrolled to write to the boys in France, so they 
came with that expectation and all the training 
was to that end. Not only were they taught as 
quickly as possible to write letters, but they 
were instructed as to the kind to write and the 
isort to withhold. Letters such as ^^Mrs. Wiggs" 
and **Pollyanna" would write — radiating enthu- 
siasm and cheer, were placed, for comparison, 
on the blackboard beside one of exaggerated 
woes, which rendered the latter so absurd that 
none would care to even faintly imitate it. 

Boys in France wrote joyfully on receipt of 
these letters. The fact that they were written 
by those who were illiterate when they left home 
gave them a happy surprise. One boy wrote, 
and his was a typical letter. 

You couldn't imagine how pleased I was 
to get a letter from my dear mother. Ma 
I wouldn't take the world for that letter. 
You certainly did well. I could read your 
letter a whole lot better than I could Pa's. 



IN WAR TIME 103 

A war course of study was prepared and 
issued for use in these sessions. The drills of 
peace time gave way to the more pressing ones 
of food conservation, the Eed Cross, Liberty 
Loans and lessons on the history of the War and 
the geography of the warring countries, all of 
which were designed to bring isolated people 
into co-operation with the agencies that were 
striving to wiq the War. 

The Soldier's First Booh was revised and 
elaborated and contributed to the Y. M. C. A., 
the educational arm of the Government, for 
publication by their press and for use in the 
camps. It was turned over to them on the one 
condition that it be provided to every illiterate 
soldier free, as had been done in Kentucky, in 
the early days of the War. 

By the fall of 1918 an elaborate educational 
program had been mapped out by the Govern- 
ment and was being applied in places, but the 
signing of the Armistice called for a complete 
reversal of these plans, and for a program that 
would quickly turn the minds of the men to the 



104 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

things of peace and reconstruction. The plans 
were immediately shifted, and the Government 
sent 50,000 Country Life Readers overseas for 
illiterate soldiers detained on foreign soil. The 
lessons on the clean ballot, just taxation, soil 
conservation and cultivation, good roads and 
the prevention of disease were all part of the 
reconstruction program, which would require 
no less courage, energy and patriotism than 
even the War itself. 

It is a far cry from the school-houses of Ken- 
tucky to the army occupation camps in Ger- 
many, but the moonlight schools had trailed the 
illiterate soldier through the camps, across the 
seas, through England and France to the army 
of occupation on the Ehine. Letters came from 
many soldiers. This one from a lieutenant in 
the army — a Kentucky boy — ^was the last re- 
ceived and made a fitting close to the part the 
moonlight schools had played in the War : 

Dear Mrs. Stewart: 

I suppose it will come somewhat as a 
surprise to learn that we are conducting 



IN WAR TIME 105 

moonlight schools according to your plans 
in far-off Germany. I'm now on outpost 
duty, and your book is in use in the point 
furthermost from Coblenz in the American 
area. Six months ago I don't suppose 
many people expected the moonlight school 
movement to reach beyond the Ehine. 

I have a fine class, mostly Italians. 
They're all anxious to learn, and I get as 
much pleasure from teaching as I did when 
I opened the first moonlight school in Camp 
Shelby. I wrote you about that. 

The teaching of illiterates is being car- 
ried on throughout our division, and I sup- 
pose in other units also. We keep records 
of their work and submit reports from time 
to time in the same manner that other work 
is being done in the army. 

Good luck to the moonlight schools and 
I hope that every American boy when he 
returns from ovetrseas will be able to read 
and write. 



CHAPTER XI 

MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 

Soldiers returned from France talking educa- 
tion, urging a better school system, and a pro- 
vision for everybody, young and old, to improve 
themselves. It was the burden of almost every 
soldier's heart. Alvin York, acclaimed the 
greatest hero of the World "War because of his 
remarkable feat of capturing 132 Germans 
single handed, came home and started raising 
money to build a school for the people of his 
native hills, and Sergeant Sandlin, the Ken- 
tucky mountaineer, whose record as a war hero 
was second only to that of York, returned to 
Kentucky, and, enlisting under the Illiteracy 
Commission, joined in the illiteracy crusade. 
None who listened to York's earnest plea for the 
people of the mountains of Tennessee, or heard 
Sandlin tell of the army commissions offered 
him in France which, because of his limited edu- 

106 



IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 107 

cation he could not accept, will forget the crude 
but eloquent appeal they made. Like other sol- 
diers returned from overseas, they came back 
preaching the gospel of education. It was a 
universal feeling among soldiers of the Allies, 
even of those from India, a country where few 
women are taught to read and write. The illit- 
erate soldier in Kipling's story, *^Eyes of 
Asia,'' dictated this letter to be written home 
from France. *^We must cause our children to 
be educated in the future. This is the opinion 
of all the regiment, for by education even 
women accomplish marvels, like the women of 
Franceville. Get the boys and girls taught to 
read and write well. Here teaching is done by 
government order." 

Most of the boys who came back wanted to 
enter school themselves. Theirs was a new 
dignity, as veterans of the War, and their illit- 
eracy was more humiliating to them and more 
shocking to the spectator than before. To those 
who possessed some education, the colleges and 
universities opened wide their doors, but the 



108 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

illiterate and near-illiterate boys were subjects 
for the kindly ministrations of the moonlight 
schools. 

Girls who had offered their services for patri- 
otic duty of various kinds during the War and 
had been rejected because of their limited edu- 
cation, had not gone home to content themselves 
with their lot, but the rude awakening to their 
condition had sent them seeking opportunities 
to learn. Middle-aged men and women and 
older ones whose illiteracy had been revealed to 
them during the War in all its ugliness were 
nursing a divine discontent. These were ready, 
as never before, for schooL 

There was another reason for educating the 
illiterates which might well have been consid- 
ered urgent from the Government's point of 
view. The unrest following the War and the 
spread of radicalism, made a situation scarcely 
less critical than the War itself. The propa- 
ganda of these discontented ones found in the 
mass of illiterates, native and foreign-born, its 
most fertUe soil. The day schools would instill 



^ ofi^UtorU/yv^ ^ 




V 






■A/tn^ 



LETTER FR03I A WAR VETERAN 



IN EECONSTRUCTION DAYS 109. 

their lessons of loyalty and patriotism, bnt the 
crisis to be met was one of the immediate future, 
and would be decided, not by the children, but 
by the adults. 

Eeconstruction gave a new motive and a new 
urge to the moonlight schools. There was much 
besides reading, writing, spelling, and arithme- 
tic to be taught in those days, and an unusual 
opportunity for correlation of those subjects 
with timely ones. There was the habit of waste 
and extravagance to be corrected, and the Na- 
tion's war debt to be paid, which called for 
training in thrift, and intensive training at 
that; there were forests to be conserved, soil 
to be reclaimed; loyalty to the country to be 
instilled, the '^Own your own home" movement 
to be emphasized, the better use of the English 
language to be secured, a higher appreciation 
developed of the benefits of American citizen- 
ship, disease to be stamped out and human life 
conserved. After the most destructive war in 
history all of these had their claim to impor- 
tance in any school curriculum and in the one 



110 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

for adults could not be ignored. They had their 
place in the reconstrnction course of study for 
the moonlight schools. They were taught in 
the reading, writing and composition lessons 
and in the drills. 

The cover of the new course of study told its 
own story of what the moonlight schools would 
try to do in reconstruction days. The school- 
house pictured there in the moonlight with many 
roads running from it, with signboards pointing 
to ^* Education,'' ** Sanitation, " and ** Health," 
'*Good Eoads," '^Thrift," '^Better Speech" 
and *^ Better Citizenship," would undertake, 
wherever it could spread its light, to meet the 
emergency which followed the War. 

As the moonlight school session started the 
Governor of Kentucky issued this message: 

While the countries of Europe rebuild 
their ruined cities and rehabilitate their 
industries, it is our privilege in the United 
States to rehabilitate the lives of our fellow 
citizens. One of the most necessary and 
most noble of reconstruction tasks is to 
teach all those who are unable to read and 



IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 111 

write. We must do this before the com- 
monwealth and the nation can make great 
advancement. 

The teachers and citizens of Kentucky 
are pioneers in the movement, which has 
now become nation-wide and has even been 
adopted in other countries. The movement 
which they have so unselfishly fostered 
demands the best that is in us all at this 
time when the last battle in the crusade 
against illiteracy in Kentucky is being 
waged. 

I honor the moonlight school teachers 
and set a high value upon the service which 
they are volunteering to render to humanity 
and to the state. May that service enrich 
their own lives as much as it will their 
fellow-men and the great commonwealth of 
Kentucky. 

James D. Black, 
Governor, 

The moonlight school teachers were aided 
and supervised by the county illiteracy agents. 
These field forces had gradually increased in 
number since the first experiment was tried out 
with them in three mountain counties in 1915. 



112 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Kentucky meanwhile had made two appropria- 
tions, $10,000 in 1916, and this had been in- 
creased to $75,000 in 1918. The field agents 
of the Illiteracy Commission now numbered 
seventy-five. An institute was held for these 
county agents at the State Capitol, where they 
were gathered for training at the state's ex- 
pense. After a week's deliberation and discus- 
sion of the problem of illiteracy and the meth- 
ods of attack, they w^ent into the field wdth an 
enthusiasm that was contagious and well-nigh 
irresistible. These county agents were men 
and women of professional training and high 
attainments. Many of them were college and 
university graduates. They were practically 
volunteers, their salaries being only about suf- 
ficient to cover their traveling expenses. What 
the teacher attempted in her district, they at- 
tempted in the county in a larger way. The 
story of the campaign made by these agents, 
their daily and nightly travel on horseback or 
afoot, their valiant efforts to reach illiterates, 
their ready arguments, their tact and diplomacy, 



IN EECONSTEUCTION DAYS 113 

their entliusiasm and pluck wonld fill a volnme 
in itseK. The spirit of these leaders and the 
scope of their operations are revealed in the 
ioUovrmg report of a young woman who was 
one of this corps of earnest workers : 

I am sending yon the final report of the 
work done in Pnlaski Connty. 

First, I desire to thank the Eliteraey 
Commission for extending me the xjrivilege 
of seizing the best cause in Kentucky, the 
eiffort to teach the illiterates, the most un- 
fortunate people in the world, and to pre- 
vent illiteracy by enforcing the compulsory 
attendance law. 

I am happy to report forty-eight moon- 
light schools organized and two hundred 
and fifty illiterates taught to read and write. 
Besides this, one hundred or more are be- 
ing taught at home. 

The people have shown a co-operative 
spirit and in many districts volunteered to 
teach in the moonlight schools. They are 
anxious to have this curse erased, as they 
realize it is a menace and prevents progress 
in every community where it exists. 

The illiteracy work has had excellent 
results, many too numerous to mention, but, 

First. It has shown the need of a new 
educational svstem where the unfortunates 



114 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

can be given a chance to learn and advance. 

Second. It has increased commnnity 
spirit, and a willingness to co-operate in 
any progressive movement. 

Third. It has increased day school at- 
tendance by a large percent. School reports 
show an increase of twenty percent. 

Fourth. Last, but not least, to those 
taught it means better sanitation and living 
conditions, better citizens to Pulaski County 
and the State of Kentucky. 

The state had been districted and seven dis- 
trict agents were put in charge. These went 
from county to county aiding and spurring the 
county agents and organizing every class and 
group of citizens to co-operate. Among these 
seven were four war veterans just returned 
from France — three war heroes and a Red Cross 
nurse. The other three were veterans no less, 
for they had served for years in that great de- 
fense line — the public schools of the state. One 
page from their *^Day by Day'' Books with its 
record of conferences and meetings held, the 
calls on school people, editors, ministers, bank- 
ers, club women, public ofificials, fraternal or- 



% 



IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 115 

ganizations and commercial bodies would show 
something of their activities, but no mere record, 
of daily duties could set forth the spirit of pa- 
triotism that animated them or the zeal with 
which they labored day and night. 

This was a time for the rehabilitation of lives, 
as Governor Black had said in his message, 
and those misguided men and women who had 
chosen error's way and were paying the penalty 
within prison walls could not be overlooked. 
Teaching prisoners began in the early days of 
the illiteracy crusade, but in this time of recon- 
struction, this part of the work was strength- 
ened and extended. Often the teaching was done 
by the jailer and his wife, sometimes it was 
done by the jailer's school-teacher daughter,, 
sometimes it was by some other member of the 
official family, frequently the county school su- 
perintendent. 

At one time classes and individuals were 
learning in about a hundred jails, and the letters 
that came out of these schools were filled witK 
mingled gratitude and regret — ^gratitude far the 



116 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

belated chance and regret that it had not come 
sooner, when it might possibly have diverted 
them from the mistaken course which led them 
into prison walls. 

The moonlight schools in the state reforma- 
tory and penitentiary found a rare opportunity. 
Here illiteracy was grouped. Hundreds of men 
had made their mark on the prison record and 
many had signed their names in scrawling, illeg- 
ible letters but could do no more in the way of 
writing. Some of these had but a year or two to 
serve. They would soon go forth into their com- 
munities and whatever education they might ac- 
quire would doubtless serve as a deterrent from 
future crime and as an inspiration toward some 
worth-while achievement. These illiterates were 
easy to reach, for most of them preferred an 
evening in class to one spent in the cell. However, 
for those who might be indifferent, a spur was 
provided in this resolution passed by the State 
Prison Board: 

Whereas, Kentucky is now engaged in 
an effort to stamp illiteracy out of the 



IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 117 

state, and inasmuch, as instructors and 
facilities for teaching are now furnished the 
inmates of penal institutions under the con- 
trol of this Board, and all are given the 
opportunity to read and write, it is there- 
fore ordered by the State Board of Control, 
that one of the essential prerequisites to a 
parole should be that a prisoner shall be able 
to read and write, and the Board therefore 
adopts the rule that hereafter all inmates 
shall be able to read and write, before their 
application for parole will be considered. 

This act making the prisoner's ability to read 
and write a condition of parole, proved a great 
incentive to the illiterates to learn. 

Some of the prisoners when their terms ex- 
pired went back home and became educational 
evangelists in their communities. It was said 
of one man who had returned from the State 
reformatory and joined in the illiteracy crusade, 
**He talks like one who had returned from a 
university rather than from the 'pen.' " 

His conversation was all of teachers, schools, 
books and '^ everybody learning to read and 
write." 

The Warden of the Kentucky State Eef orma- 



118 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

tory in his report at the close of 1919 made the 
following statement: 

Many of onr prisoners who were sup- 
posed to be able to read and write when 
they entered the institntion were actually 
found to be illiterate. The total number 
taught to read and write during my three 
and a half years as Warden, is 1,300 as 
nearly as I can sum it up from the records. 
The improvement in the discipline of the 
men who learned to read and write was 
most noticeable. I gave the work my per- 
sonal attention and feel that it was one of 
the most important duties of my office. 

The Warden of the State Penitentiary re- 
ported to the Illiteracy Commission as follows : 

It will always be a greater source of 
gratification to me that nearly 1,400 adults 
have been taught to read and write during 
my seven and a half years as the head of 
this Institution than everything else I 
have accomplished. I will state that every 
prisoner is permitted to come out to the 
school session and we have all illiterates 
attending except a few very old ones whose 
eyesight is too defective, possibly five or 
six. 



WHEN WRITING. PRISONERS MUST STRICTLY COMPLY WITH THE FOLLOWING: 

nitST CRAOE PRISONERS mv •rrite ONE Imim •uk sa llw Do tM mihI Urge p>clu«u •! |nriib«U« maluiaL 

t« «nd 20lk of c«cK month. Lc< your priMow friond know In your lotUt thai GOOD CON- 
SECOND GRADE PRISONERS taay nilo ONE lettat each oa DUCT can let him out oarliet than anythinf aba. 

Ilia IO(h of each monih All oulf oing letter* mutt be written on thii ttationefT and mutf 

THIRD GRADE PRISONERS are not alloweil to write or receive not eacced two pager in length. 

aay mail, receive boac* ee eea vieitoriL Prironcn are permitted to write to their wive*, chinrcn, brother^ 

Firal and Second Grade pri*oner* may raeelva all daaic* of mail iUtere end perenu only. Letter* to other* can be rent on'y by Ipodal 

and viuton twice each month. Ptiwinar* cannot reeaiva cooked loodl pennisaioa ol the Warden. DO NOT SEND MONEY IN BOXESi 

•r ■a diri n e* of any kind. 

Vary important letten la Third Grade prlaosan miiM bo idJmiid T. M. PHYmiAN, WaidM. 

b can M Ik* Wardaa. 

^ ^ fMMTOIT. n j^/9^. fjT WI4. 



LETTER FROM A STUDENT IN PRISON 



.^ 



IN RECONSTEUCTION DAYS 119 

According to these wardens' reports, 2,700 
prisoners in the State Eeformatory and Peni- 
tentiary had been redeemed from illiteracy dur- 
ing a period of seven years, an average of about 
385 each year. The prisoners had been pro- 
vided with free books, had been encouraged by 
the wardens and others in official life, even the 
Governor appearing on occasion to present 
them with the diplomas which were conferred 
for the completion of the course in these 
schools. 

Many of these men, by their own confession, 
had gone wrong simply because they had had 
so little to fill their lives. In a class of begin- 
ners one evening, the men were requested to 
stand and tell why they had not secured an edu- 
cation. When all had finished, the story they 
told could have been summed up in these few 
words, '*! never had no chance." 

The illiteracy campaign was being waged for 
the removal of illiteracy which already existed 
but it was, also, creating sentiment for the pre- 
vention of illiteracy in the future. Those who 



120 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

led the fight to remove illiteracy had never 
doubted that **it is better to build a fence around 
the precipice than to wait with the ambulance 
below," but so many had already gone over the 
precipice that in mercy's name they must be 
succored. The very act of rescue had attracted 
sufficient attention to the calamity, it was hoped, 
to insure the building of the fence — the creation 
of school attendance officers who would enforce 
the compulsory attendance law. The county 
illiteracy agents had been given permissive 
power by the Legislature of 1918 to act as at- 
tendance officers and had pioneered such a mea- 
sure and created sentiment for regular atten- 
dance officers T^ith full power. This sentiment 
must be crystallized before the approaching 
Legislature convened. To this end two thou- 
sand speakers went into the field to urge the 
people to their utmost efforts in teaching all 
to read and write and also to advocate two kin- 
dred educational reforms — the attendance officer 
as a preventive of another crop of illiterates, 
and a living wage for those who had ** borne the 



IX EECOXSTRUCTIOX DAYS 121 

heat and burden'' of the campaign — the pnblic 
school teachers of the state. When the Le2:is- 
latnre convened the following Jannary the senti- 
ment was overwhelmingly favorable and it was 
a mere matter of phrasing the laws, creating 
attendance officers and increasing teachers' sal- 
aries, which were promptly passed. 

Kentucky in a few years time taught 130,000 
to read and write. This record of the number 
taught is based on letters of pupils, who stated 
that they had learned, together with the reports 
of teachers and county superintendents. The 
names of the illiterates had been obtained from 
the United States Census Bureau early in the 
campaign to be used in locating them and check- 
ing off their names as they were taught. Though 
assured by the United States Commissioner of 
Education that these were records that would 
not be divulged, we had invaded the Census 
Bureau and secured the names of Rowan Coun- 
ty's illiterates. It was only a step that led to 
the divulging of the names of all the illiterates 
in Kentucky, though some pressure had to be 



122 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

put on before the complete reeord was obtained. 
It was the first time in history that the Census 
Bureau had ever been approached with such a 
request. The names of illiterates formed a record 
hitherto unavailable to the states. This Bureau 
has since been flooded with demands and some 
states have paid thousands of dollars to have 
the names of their illiterates copied. Kentucky 
had secured this information, not easily, but 
free of cost to the state and in so doing was car- 
rying out the mandate of the Legislature which 
had charged the Commission *Ho make research, 
collect data and statistics and procure surveys 
of any and all communities, districts or vicini- 
ties of the state, looking to the obtaining of a 
more detailed, definite and particular knowledge 
as to the true conditions of the state with regard 
to its adult illiteracy." 

Kentucky through an effective attendance of- 
ficer law, one of the fruits of her illiteracy cru- 
sade, has secured herself against a recurrence 
of illiteracy in future. The thousands of illit- 
erates she has redeemed have demonstrated both 



IN RECONSTRUCTION DAYS 123 

their ability and their desire to learn. There 
lies before her the task of redeeming the others 
and of providing opportunities for the newly- 
learned to advance through, at least, the ele- 
mentary grades. This will be done in time by 
following her crusade with the establishment of 
an extensive system of evening schools, with 
teachers paid and a State school for adults 
where those younger men and women who can 
leave home may complete their education 
quickly and enter upon intelligent and useful 
careers. 



■M 



CHAPTER XII 

THE ILLITERACY CRUSADE SPREADS FROM STATE TO 

STATE 

The crnsade against illiteracy had extended 
rapidly to other states. Moonlight schools were 
organized in the fall of 1913 in Bradley County, 
Tennessee, to teach the mountaineers ; in Spar- 
tanburg County, South Carolina, to teach the 
people in mill villages, and in Grant County, 
Washington, to teach some German farmers to 
read and write the English language. 

Alabama was the second state to wage a state- 
wide crusade against illiteracy. In 1914, Hon- 
orable William F. Feagin, State Superintendent 
of Education of Alabama, sent out this call: 

It is my opinion that there are a number 
of people in this state who are patriotic 
enough to give themselves over to the task 

124 




LETTER FROM AlV ALAHAMA PUPIL, 







LETTER FROM AN ALABA3IA PUriL, 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 125 

of making a crnsade against illiteracy in 
their communities, if we only knew how to 
find them. For such as these, this pamphlet 
is being sent out and in the belief that any 
soul who gives himself to a task like this, 
namely that of bringing light and help and 
cheer to those who have never learned to 
know the independence, the self-respect, the 
information and the delight of the printed 
page, is worthy of honorable mention when- 
ever we call to mind those true patriots who 
serve humanity and glorify the state. 

In 1915 the Alabama Illiteracy Commission, 
the second illiteracy commission in the world, 
was created and the Governor of Alabama 
issued a proclamation against illiteracy, which 
was, also, the second of its kind. The Alabama 
Illiteracy Commission was organized with for- 
mer Governor William D. Jelks as Chairman 
and Honorable William F. Feagin as Secretary. 
With the slogan, ^'Illiteracy in Alabama— Let's 
remove it,'' this Commission began the task of 
extending to every illiterate in Alabama the op- 
portunity of the moonlight schools. 

Late in the year of 1914, Doctor J. Y. Joyner, 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction of 



126 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Nortli Carolina, began to organize the forces 
for an illiteracy campaign in that state. What 
was accomplished in this initial campaign was 
reported by him to the editors of North Caro- 
lina assembled at Montreat, July 1, 1915, when 
he appeared before them to enlist them in a 
state-wide crusade against illiteracy. In sum- 
marizing the results he said: 

The moonlight schools have proved suc- 
cessful in dealing with this problem of adult 
illiteracy in other places, notably in Eowan 
County, Kentucky, where they were first 
inaugurated about three years ago. The 
story of the movement in that state is in- 
spiring and the results have been mar- 
velous. Largely as a result of the discus- 
sion of this subject at the annual meeting 
of the State Association of County Super- 
intendents at the Teacher's Assembly last 
November eighty-two moonlight schools 
were conducted in twenty-nine counties in 
this state last year enrolling sixteen hun- 
dred illiterates of an average age of forty- 
five, most of whom learned to read and 
write. 

Seven thousand North Carolina teachers vol- 
unteered the following year to teach moonlight 



(^^^^r^ul^ "^(0 



^ ^^^ ^n^t^nv fun^ ^>^^t^ ^^^JX ^^^^-^ 




LETTER FROM A NORTH CAROLINA PUPIL 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 127 

schools. At the close of the session Dr. Joyner 
wrote : 

A partial report from fifty of the one hun- 
dred counties show 638 moonlight schools 
with 5,530 illiterates enrolled, most of whom 
have been taught. It is safe to estimate 
that the reports from other counties will 
show at least 10,000 have been reached 
through the moonlight schools and taught 
to read and write. 

When such reports were in as could be col- 
lected — and many schools known to be success- 
ful were never reported — 9,698 illiterates had 
been taught. Doctor Joyner then rallied his 
forces for a more heroic effort with this war- 
ery: 

Outstrip Kentucky ! What Kentucky has 
done and is doing North Carolina can and 
must do for the need is greater. Adult 
illiteracy in the United States is doomed. 
A few more years and there will not be a 
vestige of it left. Kentucky, led on by the 
spirit of inspiration of a woman, has pre- 
empted the first place in this glorious work. 
North Carolina may be second; indeed 
there is a chance that she may even outstrip 



128 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Kentucky and be tlie first to reach the 
coveted goal. 

The North Carolina Legislature of 1917 
appropriated $25,000 annually for moonlight 
schools and in 1919 the work was made a part 
of the public school system of the state. 

Minnesota's first moonlight schools were 
organized in 1915 in response to a call from her 
State Superintendent of Education, Honorable 
C. G. Shulz, who, in October, 1914, issued this 
call through the press of the state: 

I hesitate to accept the figures on Min- 
nesota's illiteracy. They would seem rather 
larger than we would expect even though 
at that they show Minnesota as being among 
the states having the least illiteracy. But, 
we have to recognize that there is some 
illiteracy here and the recognition carries 
with it the admission that there shouldn't 
be any. Minnesota should stamp out illit- 
eracy absolutely. 

Mrs. Stewart's message to us makes this 
a fitting time to inaugurate a study of the 
subject here at home. I think that Minne- 
sota's illiteracy is centred mainly in urban 
rather than in rural communities. School 




o 
o 

o 

m 

•I— c 

o 
o 



03 
.S 

'o 

O 

12; 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 129 

lieads would do well to make an immediate 
survey of their neighborhoods and to ascer- 
tain who the illiterates are and how to reach 
them. 

Superintendent E. A. Freeman, of Itasca 
County, was the first of Mr. Shulz 's lieutenants 
to respond. Mr. Freeman organized his teach- 
ers in November, 1914, and conducted moon- 
light schools for illiterates, mainly those of for- 
eign birth. This pioneer work in Minnesota 
was the inspiration of the Naturalization Bu- 
reau which adopted the plan and promoted it 
in other localities. The Examiner of the Natu- 
ralization Bureau for Minnesota in one of his 
official bulletins said: 

The National Government Bureau of Nat- 
uralization is anxious to help the foreign- 
born to learn to read and write the English 
language and to better understand our form 
of government. In the rural districts 
where the need is greatest, little has been 
done, but Professor E. A. Freeman, ^ of 
Itasca County, introduced an entering 
wedge last year in his schools and met with 
much success. 



130 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Oklahoma had several moonlight schools in 

1914 through the influence of the Literacy 
Leagne organized at the State Normal School 
at Edmond by Moses E. Wood, head of the 
Departments of Pedagogy and Psychology. In 

1915 Honorable R. H. Wilson, State Superin- 
tendent of Education, launched a state-wide 
campaign in which he enlisted several thousand 
teachers besides organizing the press and the 
people of his state to aid. A sweeping cam- 
paign was made by Mr. Wilson and the patriotic 
men and women who enlisted with him. In an 
official report in 1916 Superintendent Wilson 
gave the results of the first year's work as 
follows : 

Probably more than five thousand persons 
were reached by the moonlight schools in 
Oklahoma during the school year 1915-16. 
This is indeed a good beginning. During 
the next school year 1916-17, we should 
reach 25,000 illiterates and as many adult 
literates. The black cloud of illiteracy can 
be dispelled by the united efforts of county 
superintendents and teachers. This is a 
call to service and an appeal to the state 




o 
o 

o 
GO 



I 

o 

o 



o 

o 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 131 

pride of every teacher employed in our eom- 
mon schools. By concerted effort we can 
make Oklahoma the most literate state in 
the union. 

Oklahoma was the first state whose normal 
schools offered credits for moonlight school 
work, an example followed by Kentucky and 
some of the other states. 

^'Illiteracy in New Mexico must go," was 
the slogan sounded by the school forces in 
New Mexico during 1915. Honorable Alvin N. 
White, State Superintendent of Education, in- 
augurated the campaign, and the slogan was 
caught up with enthusiasm by leaders through- 
out the state. This appeal was made by Super- 
intendent White : 

The purpose of this is to call attention 
of the people of the state to the alarming 
and excessive percentage of illiteracy; to 
have the educated forces of the state realize 
more fully that illiteracy is a curse, a men- 
ace and a disgrace ; that it must be destroyed 
and the state elevated; that by the united 
efforts of the teachers and citizens of the 
state everybody must read and write in 
New Mexico by 1920. 



132 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Santa Fe Comity, under the leadership of 
Superintendent John V. Conway, led the state. 
Superintendent Conway and his corps of teach- 
ers made the record of establishing a moonlight 
school in every district with 1,549 adults en- 
rolled. This county had a large Mexican popu- 
lation, some of whom could read and write in 
Spanish, but came to the moonlight schools to 
learn to read and write English. The majority 
of Mexicans enrolled, however, were illiterate, 
and these were taught in English. The record 
of this pioneer county inspired the entire state 
and has been the foundation upon which New 
Mexico's work among adult illiterates has been 
built. It led to the enactment by the New Mex- 
ico Legislature of several laws, for the benefit 
of illiterate adults, one of them providing com- 
pensation for those who would teach a moon- 
light school with as many as ten illiterates 
enrolled. 

The illiteracy crusade spirit was abroad in 
California and found concrete expression in 
1915 when the State Department of Education, 







'S 
Ih 
TO 
QJ 

'S 
O 



03 



O 



O 
13 



^Y4/?:^yC/ ^^/ccc( ^.c^-u^ ->yjLA ^/^MT -/^<^<^ -Z^y^^zycS 




'^d^^ ^cU^a.^ (:f^jis\ 



LETTER FROM NEW MEXICO MOONLIGHT SCHOOL 



THE CRUSADE SPEEADS 133 

the Immigration Commission and the California 
Fedexation of Women's Clubs jointly launched 
a state-wide campaign. The Federation an- 
nounced its plans as follows: 

The Education Committee is asked to • 
center its efforts upon the eradication of 
illiteracy and the Kentucky plan is recom- 
mended. The program is to vitalize the 
state into educational responsibility and 
activity in behalf of a considerable part of 
our population and to raise California to 
the first place in the literacy column. 

California passed the **home teacher" law in 
the same year. The law provides an itinerant 
teacher to go from house to house and instruct 
illiterates and others. To this has been added 
other wise legislation in behalf of the illiterates, 
at the instance of Honorable Will C. Wood, 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 
a comprehensive program for the elimination 
of illiteracy from California has been adopted 
and is being carried on under the State Depart- 
ment of Education. Los Angeles is one of the 
cities in the United States that has made 



134 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

great progress in redeeming illiterates. Kate 
Douglas Wiggin wrote a story — ^*The Girl and 
the Kingdom" — and gave it to the teachers of 
this, her home city, to be sold and the money 
used to defray the expenses of the local illiteracy 
campaign. 

The moonlight schools were begun in Georgia 
in 1915 under the leadership of Honorable 
M. L. Brittain, State Superintendent of Schools, 
who tells of its progress in the following report : 

The first notable instance of training 
illiterates under State auspices originated 
in Kentucky several years ago. The work 
attracted attention throughout the country 
and several states organized somewhat sim- 
ilar classes. 

As State Superintendent of Education, 
I called the attention of our Legislature 
to this subject four years ago, but met with 
no encouragement, the belief being ex- 
pressed that these illiterate grown-ups 
could not be taught with any degree of 
success. To prove that this feeling was 
erroneous, our five state rural school super- 
visors were directed to see what could be 










LETTER FR03I A GEORGIA MOONLIGHT SCHOOL 

PUPIL 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 135 

done with these classes and five counties 
were selected for the purpose. Very good 
results were obtained by these supervisors. 
The best work in the state, however, was 
accomplished by Mr. I. S. Smith, an edu- 
cator, who was then Superintendent of Tatt- 
nall County schools, who had more than six 
hundred adults taught to read and write.. 
Fortified with these facts and the proof 
that it could be done successfully, the Legis- 
lature was again requested to authorize the 
work and to give financial aid for its sup- 
port. 

In compliance with Mr. Brittain's request, 
the Georgia Legislature created an Illiteracy 
Commission in 1919. Governor Hugh Dorsey 
became the President and Mr. Brittain was 
made Secretary and Director of this Commis- 
sion. Seven state organizers were employed, 
six white and one colored, and the five regular 
.state school supervisors were directed to give 
much of their time to the illiteracy campaign. 

In his official report of 1920 Mr. Brittain 
says: 

Another 1919 law that reflects credit upon 
the legislature is that of teaching the illit- 



136 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

erates. Our records show that we have, 
since August, enrolled 31,545 illiterates and 
taught 17,982 to read and write. 

The State of Washington, under the leader- 
ship of Mrs. Josephine Corliss Preston, State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, enacted a 
law in 1915 which enabled all school districts to 
have night schools. Finding that the illiteracy 
campaign was necessary to arouse the illiterates 
to their opportunity and the public to co-oper- 
ate, an Illiteracy Conunission has since been 
created with the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction as Chairman and with members 
chosen from the various state organizations. 
This Commission has appointed county illiter- 
acy commissions and is engaged in a campaign 
to remove illiteracy from the state. 

The illiteracy movement, which was started 
in South Carolina in 1913 by Miss Julia Selden, 
a patriotic Southern woman, took the form of a 
crusade in Laurens and Newberry Counties in 
1914 and blossomed into an Illiteracy Com- 
mission in 1916. The Legislature appropriated 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 137 

$10,000 for the work in 1918 and increased the 
appropriation to $25,000 in 1910, when it be- 
came a branch of the State Department of Edu- 
cation, the Illiteracy Commission assuming the 
position of aid and ally. South Carolina, the 
first state to secede from the Union before the 
Civil War, chose as her slogan in the illiteracy 
crusade, *'Let South Carolina secede from Il- 
literacy/' 

The Mississippi Legislature created an Illit- 
eracy Commission in 1916 and began a state- 
wide campaign with the slogan, ** Illiteracy in 
Mississippi — Blot it out." 

At the request of Governor Charles H. 
Brough, an Illiteracy Commission was created 
by the Arkansas Legislature in 1917. The ex- 
pense of the illiteracy crusade in that state was 
met, at first, by the bankers, together with other 
patriotic organizations and individuals. The 
Legislature of 1920 made an annual appropria- 
tion of $13,000 which was supplemented by pri- 
vate subscriptions, and Arkansas entered upon 
an intensive campaign. The slogan, *' Let's 



138 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS ^Bl 

sweep illiteracy out of Arkansas, ' ' has met with 
a hearty response by the whole people of the 
state. Arkansas has apportioned a certain num- 
ber of her illiterates to be reached within a defi- 
nite time. One-fourth of them will be taught 
each year until the task is done. Governor 
Thomas C. McKae in the following proclama- 
tion declared *' illiteracy is the greatest stain 
upon the state": 

Because I believe that the best way to 
reduce crime and poverty is through educa- 
tion of adults as well as children, 

Because I believe that every man and 
woman in Arkansas has a right to an edu- 
cation. 

Because I believe that the greatest stain 
upon our state is the condition of adult 
illiteracy. Nearly 100,000 men and women 
in Arkansas cannot write their names, 

Because I believe that united effort on 
the part of the citizens of Arkansas will 
speedily eradicate this evil, 

I hereby designate the week beginning 
February 5 and ending February 12, as 
** Illiteracy Week" to be known as such 
throughout the entire state. 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 139 

I call npon the bankers, the lawyers, the 
merchants and the men of all stations in life 
to lend their efforts toward encouraging 
people to learn to read and write. 

I call upon Kotary Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, 
Lions Clubs, Civitan Clubs, Chambers of 
Commerce, Y. M. C. A.'s, Y. W. C. A.'s, 
K. of C.'s, S. I. A.'s, fraternal societies 
and lodges and all other organizations, be 
they small or great, to volunteer moral and 
financial aid in driving out our enemy, 
ignorance. 

I call upon the ministers of Arkansas to 
set aside one Sunday within the period 
designated as a day to be devoted to preach- 
ing adult education. 

I call upon the teachers and pupils of 
our public schools to take the message as 
planned by the Illiteracy Commission, into 
every community. 

I call upon every citizen in the State to 
assist in this movement by teaching at least 
one person who wants some education or 
more education. 

Given under my hand and the great seal 
of the State at the Capitol at Little Eock 
this 21st day of January, A.D. 1922. 

Dr. John H. Finley, Commissioner of Educa- 
tion of New York State, launched a state-wide 



140 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

campaign against illiteracy in that state in 1917, 
Only $3,200 was appropriated at first, but inter- 
est in the work so increased that $140,000 was 
appropriated in 1919. Governor Alfred G. Smith 
in signing the bill said in a memorandum: 

The purpose of this bill is to obliterate 
adult illiteracy from the State. This sub- 
ject is one in which I have long been inter- 
ested. The plan proposed through this 
measure appears to be so practicable and 
reasonable that its operations may, in my 
judgment, be made effective in accomplish- 
ing the desired purpose. 

New York appropriated $200,000 the follow- 
ing year, and within four years after starting 
the movement, had expended a half million dol- 
lars from her state and local treasuries on 
educating illiterate native and foreign-born 
adults. The State Department reports some 
two hundred thousand taught to read and write. 
It was the first state to secure the illiteracy 
census of 1920 from the Federal Census Bureau 
This was placed in the hands of the school 




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OJ 

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O 



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THE CRUSADE SPREADS 141 

authorities by Dr. Finley, who wrote to Ms 
lieutenants : 

I hope that we shall immediately and 
vigorously take advantage of this census of 
1920 which has, through special effort and 
provision, been put so promptly at our dis- 
posal, to clear the state of adult illiteracy 
as you have practically done for child 
illiteracy. 

Dr. Thomas E. Finegan, State Superinten- 
dent of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania, is 
a well-known champion of the illiterates of the 
nation and their cause and the State of Penn- 
sylvania is making great strides in reducing 
illiteracy under his leadership. An extensive 
program of instruction for the illiterates and 
the Americanization of foreigners has been car- 
ried on in the state since 1918. The State De- 
partment of Education reported 20,378 taught 
during the year 1919 alone. The name of every 
illiterate taken by the census enumerators in 
1920 is on record in Pennsylvania, having been 
obtained from the Federal Census Bureau. 



142 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

With the stimulns of achievement back of her 
and with splendid organization, plans and lead- 
ership, Pennsylvania bids fair to realize her 
slogan— *' Pennsylvania a literate state in ten 
years. '^ 

Ohio is engaged in the fight on ilUteracy. 
Much skirmishing has been done by the State 
Department of Education and by Dr. S. K. 
Mardis, of Ohio University, a pioneer crusader 
in that state, and in 1922 a State Illiteracy Com- 
mission was created and the work among illit- 
erates started as a state-wide campaign. 

Maine, under the leadership of Dr. Augustus 
0. Thomas, State Superintendent of Schools, 
has a five-year program for wiping out illit- 
eracy. Maine has 20,240 illiterates and this 
five-year program will include the teaching of 
some four thousand each year, a thing easily 
possible of accomplishment. Maine thus expects 
to free herself from illiteracy by 1926. The 
politicians watch Maine closely in election times 
and have a saying, ''As goes Maine, so goes 
America.'' If the Nation can afford to follow 



THE CRUSADE SPREADS 143 

Maine in things political, it can well afford to 
emulate her in the emancipation of its illiterates. 

North Dakota wages war on illiteracy in a 
determined fashion and with the avowed inten- 
tion to surpass all of the other states. ' ' No illit- 
eracy in 1924'' is her goal. She has 9,937 to 
teach and practically her whole population has 
entered into the crusade in a plucky spirit, re- 
solved to get at least half of them taught before 
the end of the year, 1922. The spirit of these 
North Dakota crusaders was illustrated by two 
young teachers who were asked, '^Have you any 
illiterates in your districts!" and replied with 
eagerness, ^*0h, we hope we have." They, 
like all of North Dakota, want to play their 
part in making their state the first literate state 
in the Union. 

Massachusetts and the other New England 
states. New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode 
Island, have extended the opportunity to their 
adult illiterates under certain ages and condi- 
tions. 

Virginia has had moonlight schools in her 



144 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

remote sections, West Virginia in her coves, 
Texas on her ranches, Louisiana in her parishes, 
Michigan in her lumber camps and the Dakotas 
on their plains. Moonlight schools have min- 
istered to illiterate fishermen on the coast of 
Maryland, illiterate immigrants on the coast of 
California, illiterate Swedes in Minnesota, illi- 
terate Indians in Oklahoma, illiterate Mexicans 
in New Mexico and illiterate white and colored 
people through the mountains and valleys of the 
South. 

With the slogans, ** Illiteracy in Alabama — 
Let's remove it," **No illiteracy in New York 
State," ** Pennsylvania a literate state in ten 
years," ^^No illiteracy in North Dakota in 
1924," '^Let South Carolina secede from illit- 
eracy," ** Let's sweep illiteracy out of Arkan- 
sas," **Hliteracy in Mississippi — ^Blot it out," 
^^niiteracy in New Mexico must go," the states 
have isounded a battle-cry which means the 
death-knell of illiteracy in the Nation. 



CHAPTER Xin 

THE PURPOSE OF THE MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

In all the decades prior to the one ushered in 
by 1910, there was not a state, county, city or 
school district which had as its purpose the ab- 
solute removal of illiteracy. When the startling 
announcement was made by the census-takers at 
the beginning of the new decade that five and a 
half million men and women in the Nation had 
confessed that they could not read or write, 
there was nowhere an expression of shame or 
pity or even of surprise. It was accepted as 
a thing inevitable — ^the waste product of an in- 
efficient school system. Even the press, usually 
alert and looking for unusual conditions to ex- 
ploit, found nothing worth featuring in these 
tragic figures. 

There was a vagueness' and confusion in the 

145 



146 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

public mind as to the term illiteracy and what 
constituted it, where the boundary line between 
literacy and illiteracy was fixed. Not one per- 
son out of ten in the United States could define 
illiteracy. Few Had thought of it at all or had 
taken occasion to familiarize themselves with 
the term. It was such an unfamiliar one that 
the first Illiteracy Commission had to impress 
itself, to explain itself — ^its very name, repeat- 
edly. Forestry conunissions and fish and game 
commissions were familiar enough but one which 
had as its purpose to redeem men and women 
from illiteracy was a foreign and unintelli- 
gible thing. The public, in general, knew little 
of the baneful effects of illiteracy on the indi- 
vidual or the conununity. Searching the files 
of educational reports we find no addresses on 
this subject, and on the shelves of the public 
libraries there was nothing to be found save a 
few statistical reports in scientific journals. 
The man who made his mark aroused no more 
concern than the one who wrote his signature. 
Nowhere in all history is there a record of more 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 147 

general apathy having settled down on a crying 
need or a worthy cause. 

The example of a few states leading out in 
the early part of the decade in a crnsade against 
illiteracy w^ithout federal oversight or aid, with- 
out funds from the state and with but little pub- 
lic sentiment aroused, and the readiness with 
which state after state recognized the need, 
sought the remedy and fell into line, is one of 
the most hopeful chapters in educational history. 
The moonlight school has as its avowed pur- 
^pose the removal of illiteracy. It has its sec- 
ondary aims and its indirect results, but until 
illiteracy is banished it must remain devoted to 
the one idea of redeeming illiterates— of freeing 
them from their bondage. 

This purpose was being fulfilled when the 
first three illiterates in Eowan County learned 
to read and write and when the first district 
banished illiteracy and it is being fulfilled today 
wherever, through its influence and example, 
adult illiterates are being emancipated. When 
the first three illiterates learned to read and 



148 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

write, the representatives of those three classes 
— the illiterate mother, the man in his prime 
and the yonth with all of life opening out before 
him — it was an evidence that all illiterates of 
normal mentality could be redeemed. The first 
few who learned served to show the possibility, 
the practicability and the ease with which 
knowledge could be imparted to all the rest. 

To con over the fascinating figures of illit- 
erates redeemed in the various counties of some 
states in their initial campaigns is an inspiring 
thing, and is an earnest of what a few more 
years of effort with more means, trained leaders 
and better methods will bring about. Leslie 
County, Kentucky, in its initial campaign in 
1915, taught 600 to read and write; Tatnall 
County, Georgia, emancipated 600 in a cam- 
paign of two years. Santa Fe County, New 
Mexico, taught 1,549, the majority of them being 
illiterates. All three were pioneering. What 
more hopeful record of educational progress can 
one contemplate than is to be found in the report 
of the Georgia Illiteracy Commission, prepared 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 149 

by its Secretary, State Superintendent M. L. 
Brittain, a few months after tlie illiteracy cam- 
paign began in that state. 

Number of illiterates taught to read and 
write : 

Tellfair County, 500; Washington Coun- 
ty, 555; Fulton County, 632; Muscogee 
County, 638; Bibb County, 665. 

One turns to the record in Kentucky to the 
reports of county school superintendents, and 
these are some of the figures that give assurance 
that the moonlight school is fulfilling its pur- 
pose. 

Number taught to read and write during 
a period of four years prior to 1920: 

Bath County, 750; Clay County, 900; 
Bell County, 1,000; Magofdn County, 1,400; 
Floyd County, 1,600. 

How much more fruitful could one expect any 
campaign to be than that which was started to 
teach the illiterates of North Carolina in 1914, 
and shortly afterward reported 10,000 taught 
to read and write! The purpose of the moon- 



150 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

light schools was fulfilled in this 10,000 redeemsd 
from illiteracy, in the 17,892 taught in Georgia's 
opening campaign, in the 25,000 that Alabama 
taught in a few years' time and in the thousands 
emancipated by other states. In all these the 
moonlight school was achieving its purpose and 
pointing the way to the ultimate goal — ^the elimi- 
nation of illiteracy from the Nation. 

Not in all the states have the schools for illit- 
erates borne the name of moonlight schools. 
Some after successfully launching the move- 
ment under this name adopted names suited to 
their peculiar conditions, such as the ^^The 
Lay-By Schools" of South Carolina, '*The 
Adult Schools" of Alabama, '*The Community 
Schools" of North Carolina and the *^ Schools 
for Grown-ups" of Georgia. In some of the 
states the plan and purpose were adopted but 
not the name. Eventually when these schools 
are firmly wedded to the public-school system 
they may all take the prosaic name of evening 
schools, just as the *'01d Field Schools of the 
South" and other pioneers of the day school 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 151 

system became known as the pnblic or common 
schools. 

In their first wave of enthusiasm, some of 
the states set a high goal. No less than six of 
them had as their aim to wipe out illiteracy by 
1920. This would have been easily possible with 
some had funds been promptly provided and the 
co-operation of the whole people given in fullest 
measure. As it was, it was possible to set many 
illiterates free and to place before the people 
the ideal of removing illiteracy from a definite 
place within a given time. A worthy goal is a 
great inspiration, and none who strove to wipe 
illiteracy out of a defi^nite section by 1920 will 
give up in despair because they arrived only 
half or one-third of the way. ''A man's reach 
should exceed his grasp, ' ' says Browning. ' ' Or 
what's a Heaven for?" Those who realized 
even a portion of their aim now see how humane, 
patriotic and practical it is to redeem the adult 
illiterates and will simply set their mark ahead 
and **run their race with patience," expecting 
to make the finish before the next decade. 



152 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

North Dakota, which has but a few thousands 
to redeem, has well set the year 1924 as the time 
when it will be clear of illiteracy, while Penn- 
sylvania, with tremendous numbers, wisely gives 
herself ten years to finish the task. 

Victor Hugo says, ** There is something that 
is mightier than armies, and that is an idea 
whose time has come." The moonlight school 
in 1911 advanced the idea that illiteracy could 
be wiped out of a given locality within a given 
time. It is an idea that has taken such firm 
hold on the public mind that nothing less than 
the emancipation of every illiterate will satisfy 
the public conscience. The removal of illiteracy 
is now the fixed purpose of the Nation. 

The National Educational Association, the 
greatest influence in educational affairs of the 
United States, has accepted the idea and has 
made the removal of illiteracy the first provision 
in its educational program for America. This 
association now has its illiteracy commission, 
the National Council of Education, the General 
Federation of Women's Clubs and other great 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 153 

national organizations have their illiteracy com- 
mittees, appointed for one purpose— to wipe 
illiteracy out of the Nation. Many of the Gov- 
ernors have urged in their messages to the 
Legislature or in their inaugural addresses that 
the state will undertake to immediately redeem 
all of its illiterates. In the presidential cam- 
paign of 1920 the eradication of illiteracy was 
a reform written into the platform of one of the 
two major parties and urged by the candi- 
dates of both parties as one of the tasks to which 
the Nation must apply itself. 

The idea of eradicating illiteracy has taken 
firm hold of the Nation's leaders. Congress- 
man Horace M. Towner, of Iowa, in making the 
report of the Committee on Education to the 
National House of Kepresentatives, said of the 
first county that had attacked illiteracy: ''This 
experiment conclusively shows that it is possi- 
ble to bring help to iUiterate men and women 
even under the most adverse circiunstances. It 
demonstrates the fact that under proper leader- 



154 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

ship and under proper direction adult illiteracy 
is easily and quickly wiped out." 

Champ Clark and Ollie James, both former 
Kentucky school teachers, had the spirit of com- 
radeship with the moonlight school teachers 
and found many ways of aiding and encourag- 
ing them in their gallant fight on illiteracy, 
while William Jennings Bryan crowned the 
teachers with these words spoken in an address 
at Kaleigh, North Carolina: ^^If there are any 
who have ever realized these words of the Mas- 
ter, *It is more blessed to give than to receive,' 
it must be the teachers of the moonlight 
schools." President Wilson stopped his work 
one busy day to write and commend a Kentucky 
moonlight school teacher who had won a Con- 
gressman's prize for teaching the best moon- 
light school in his Congressional district. This 
letter, accompanied by the President's picture, 
was a commendation of all moonlight school 
teachers and the idea for which they stood just 
as President Lincob's letter to Mrs. Bixby was 



PUEPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 155 

a letter glorifying all mothers who had given 
sons in the Civil War. 

All of the agitation against adult illiteracy, 
in which the moonlight school has been the 
pioneer and dramatic factor, has made illiteracy 
appear as a disgraceful and unpopular thing. 
There is an odium attached to it to-day that was 
lacking in the years gone by. Hliteracy has been 
stigmatized where the crusade against it has 
been waged and made to seem a thing to flee 
from as from leprosy. One who makes his mark 
is not now ignored or overlooked, but in many 
communities and in most of the states he is a 
subject of deep concern. His act will scarcely 
be passed by without discussion. Those who 
observe him in this act will relate his story with 
all its pathos and the disgrace connected with 
it and will not fail to apply the moral. The 
result is usually the supplying of the unfortunate 
with books and teaching him to read and write. 

There are commimities to-day that feel a sense 
of responsibility for teaching every illiterate, 
and for doing it within a brief and definite time. 



156 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

There are some districts that feel illiteracy to 
be a reproach under which they cannot rest. 
Governor Henry J. Allen, of Kansas, who made 
an investigation of the moonlight schools, wrote 
in a magazine article as follows : 

Two men met on a mountain pathway, 
and began to talk about how soon their 
county would be ' ' Cleared up. ' ' They were 
not referring to weeds or underbrush or 
timber, to insects, reptiles or malarial 
fever. They were referring to the elimina- 
tion of illiteracy. Nothing just like it has 
found expression in any educational system, 
in any age; the sureness of faith of those 
who teach, the simplicity of their efforts, 
the general response. I have seen three 
generations studying the same books in one 
moonlight school. *^ There are 2,442 illit- 
erates in the county," said a man to me in 
one of the counties in the Cumberland 
Mountains. **It wiU take two years to wipe 
out illiteracy. ' ' Think of the calm faith of 
it ! I believe that the story of the moonlight 
schools is the most exalted and sacrificial 
that has been told in the educational e:ffort 
of America. 

The newspapers now find a fertile field in 
illiteracy statistics and have come to devote 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 157 

space and headlines to them, giving them rank- 
ing interest with the most vital things of the 
day. The purpose of the moonlight school is 
so outstanding that it has captured the pens of 
cartoonists. These have vividly pictured illit- 
eracy in all its evil, its weakness and its dis- 
grace. It is only a matter of time until poets, 
sculptors and artists will here find a theme for 
their art. 

The change of attitude toward adult illiteracy 
has not come about without some resistance, 
some opposition, of course. Where such indif- 
ference and such ignorance prevailed in regard 
to a subject it could hardly be expected that 
reform could move forward without some inter- 
ference and obstacles. Some educated people 
had no more intelligent idea, at the outset, about 
removing illiteracy, than had a certain old 
colored professor in Mississippi when the 
crusade was started in that state. The teachers 
in their examinations were asked the question, 
^^How rid the state of adult illiteracy!" and 
the professor wrote this answer: **The only 



158 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

way to rid the state of adult illiteracy is to get 
rid of the adults. You should not have adults 
around your place or anywhere. As long as 
you have adults around, you'll always have 
illiteracy." 

The education of the educated to the problem 
of illiteracy has been no small part of the cru- 
sade. The pioneers had to educate themselves 
as to the nature and scope of the problem and 
the plan of attack, to educate the public to co- 
operate — some to contribute funds, a larger 
group to give service, and the whole public to 
give their moral support. The public had to be 
brought under indictment for the illiteracy sta- 
tistics, which, viewed in bulk for state and Na- 
tion, had seemed too stupendous to arouse a 
feeling of responsibility in community or indi- 
vidual, but when analyzed and presented for 
counties and local communities produced an 
entirely different effect. The right of adult illit- 
erates to learn had been challenged, their ability 
to do so had been questioned, the advisability 
of having teachers assume the extra duty of 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 159 

teaching them had been doubted, the statistics, 
when analyzed and brought close to home had 
been disputed and resented; demagogues had 
assumed that any reference to the illiteracy of 
the state or community meant to traduce it, pro- 
fessional politicians had gloried in holding the 
purse-strings of the public treasury as tight as 
possible against any invasion for such a cause, 
and a few educators so violently opposed illit- 
erates being taught to read and write that it 
brought forth from a layman the caustic com- 
ment, **The greatest trouble with some edu- 
cators is that they are so opposed to education. ' ' 
The illiterates themselves had to be educated 
to an understanding of their opportunity. Not 
everyone came rushing out to school in every 
district when the schools first opened. An in- 
stitution so new as a school where illiterate 
adults could learn to read and write may easily 
be misunderstood, criticized and even resented 
by those who need it most. Considering the mis- 
taken attitude of the educated for generations 
past on the question of teaching them, it is not 



160 



MOOXLIGHT SCHOOLS 



at all strange tiiat some of the illiterates, them- 
selves, with, minds so befogged and darkened, 
should have had doubts and misconceptions of 
the school and what it would do for theuL My 
father, himself a former school teacher, but 
later a physician, greeted me once in the early 
days of the movement with the remark, * * What 
fool thing is this you are doiug? I hear that 
you have old Jimmie Thomas and old Bicie 
Carter going to schooL" 

His was the viewpoint, at the time, of the 
average educated man. That illiterates could 
overcome their fears and their pride with such 
sentiments being expressed around them is a 
credit both to them and to the teachers who per- 
suaded them that it iras within their power to 
leam to read and write. 

The change in the public attitude toward illit- 
eracy in the states that have had campaigns has 
been eminently worth while. Alabama realized 
this when her progressive program of school 
legislation passed so readily due to the awakened 
public sentiment brought about by her crusade ; 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 161 

Kentucky was in no mood to provide special 
officers to enforce lier lax and inadequate com- 
pulsory attendance laws until the illiteracy cam- 
paign had swept over the state and shown her 
how foul and frightful a thing was illiteracy in 
either child or adult. Arkansas and other states 
that wage war on illiteracy talk of it ^* awaken- 
ing an educational conscience. '^ This is one 
of the purposes of the moonlight school — to 
awaken the educated to their responsibility, to 
create in them a desire to redeem the illiterates, 
as well as to arouse the illiterates to seek their 
freedom. All of tliis means more than freeing 
a state from illiteracy. It means a new appre- 
ciation of education, a devotion to it which ^ill 
not cease with the illiteracy crusade, but will 
affect the public school system from the ele- 
mentary school to the university. You cannot 
teach the illiterates of the district to read and 
write without increasing the educational spirit 
of the community and improving the school ad- 
vantages of the children. You cannot start the 
educated out on a crusade to redeem their illit- 



162 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

erate neighbors without arousing in them a sen- 
timent for better education for their own and 
their neighbors' children and for better educa- 
tional conditions throughout the system for 
future generations. 

The moonlight school movement does not as- 
sume to be an educational regeneration. It 
assumes but one duty and that is to redeem the 
illiterates. Its by-products, however, are in- 
creased attendance in the day schools, increased 
interest in school improvement, intelligent sup- 
port of progressive legislation and other things 
that vitalize and help the schools. Some who 
have no vision of a community redeemed from 
illiteracy and no sympathy with the illiterates 
are often heard to remark, **The best result of 
the moonlight school is its effect on day-school 
attendance. ' ' A thing must first have a good 
direct effect before it can produce a good indi- 
rect one. Teachers declare that the moonlight 
schools increase day-school attendance all the 
way from ten to thirty per cent, but the moon- 
light schools could not accomplish this did they 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOLS 163 

not achieve their primary purpose, that of 
teaching the illiterates to read and write. 

In 1910 there was not a law on the statute 
books of any of the states referring to adult 
illiteracy. In 1920 there were laws providing 
for the teaching of adult illiterates; laws pro- 
viding salaries for teachers to teach them ; laws 
providing for training of teachers of adult illit- 
erates; laws compelling illiterates of certain 
ages to learn, and laws providing for their in- 
struction at home or in factory, mill or mine. 

The spirit behind these laws could not and 
never will be fully translated into legislative 
acts. The determination of the illiteracy crusad- 
ers in the di:fferent states is like that of the colon- 
ists in the American Eevolution. When the Eng- 
lish Secretary urged an increase of troops in 
Boston until their guns outnumbered the Ameri- 
cans, Pitt declared, **We must reckon not so 
much with their guns' as with their sentiments 
of liberty." The emancipation of all the illit- 
erates in the United States is not a dream of 
the far future. The challenge to liberate them 



164 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

has been answered by leaders all over the na- 
tion with the slogan, **No illiteracy in the 
United States in 1930.'' 

The secondary purpose of the moonlight 
school — to afford an opportunity to the near- 
illiterate and the half-uneducated — ^may, when 
illiteracy is vanquished, become its primary and 
most practical one. All over the land there are 
many who dream of completing their education 
some time, and even the well-educated will not 
scorn the opportunity to improve. A Kentucky 
woman of forty who was a graduate of a well- 
known college, was asked this question, ''If you 
had your choice of all the good things of life, 
what would it be I" ''I'd rather go to school," 
she said. She lived in one of the most cultured 
communities, but she expressed the wish for a 
moonlight school to be established, saying, "I'd 
like to review my American history and if no- 
body will teach the class I'll teach it myself for 
the sake of the review." There are many like 
this woman who would choose a term in school 
to every other blessing. While they have paid 



PURPOSE OP THE SCHOOLS 165 

school taxes and hnngered for educational op- 
portunities, the school plant has remained closed 
for all but six hours of the day during a brief 
school term in many communities. There are 
8,760 hours in a year and the school plant is 
open only 960 of these hours in some districts, 
where only six-months schools are conducted, a 
tremendous waste in the school plant, but a 
greater one in human intellect and aspirations. 

A day school in every community! Once it 
was a doubtful experiment, but now it is an 
established institution and forever so. It has 
come up through trials, tribulations and strug- 
gles innumerable. A night school in every 
community! If it is an educated community, 
a night school for more education, for culture 
and specialization; if an illiterate community, 
for the emancipation of the illiterates and their 
new birth into the realms of knowledge and 
power ! 

The public school should be as liberal in its 
policy as is in the church. It has no right 
to say to men and women, '^If you embrace 



166 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

me not before a certain age or before a certain 
hour in the day I will close my doors to you 
forever." The hour of a man's opportunity 
should be any hour in which he awakens to his 
need whether it be at the age of six or a hun- 
dred and six. 



CHAPTEE XIV 

THE NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

The time has passed when intelligent men 
dispute the need of everyone to be able to read 
and write. 

There was a time in the dark ages when learn- 
ing first began to lift its head, that the proud 
knight boasted that he could not read or write 
— ^mere priest-craft much beneath him. Quite 
late in English history it was held derogatory 
for the nobility to spell well. These baser arts 
were for their inferiors. Their attitude was 
that of Douglas, in Scott's poem ^^Marmion,'* 
who exclaimed : 

Thanks to Saint Bothan, son of mine, 
Save Gawain ne'er could pen a line. 

Eoyal Governor Berkeley, writing home to 
England in the seventeenth century, ^ thanked 
God that no public schools nor printing presses 

167 



168 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

existed in the colony," and added his hope that 
none wonld be introdneed for a hundred years 
*^ since learning brings irreligion and disobedi- 
ence into the world and the printing press dis- 
iseminates them and fights against the best in- 
tentions of the government." 

George Washington and the other founders 
of onr Nation held views just the opposite of 
those expressed by Lord Berkeley and they, 
almost without exception, left their message 
urging that the people be enlightened. Wash- 
ington made a provision in his will that his 
negro slaves imder twenty-five years of age 
should be taught to read and write. This is 
significant. It shows that the Father of our 
Country believed that even those who were 
physically enslaved should be mentally free and, 
also, that he considered learning to read and 
write a process not necessarily confined to child- 
hood. 

The Chinese have a tradition that when the 
art of writing was born all nature was moved. 
Heaven rained millet, demons wailed in the 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 169 

night and dragons Md in the depths. One can 
well believe that its appearance on the earth 
created this commotion when it is realized that 
with writing came the mightiest power for com- 
bating error and removing all manner of evil. 
How strange it seems that men have not poured 
ont this power more freely on their fellow men ! 

Life itself is more or less dependent upon the 
ability to read and write. In no place is disease 
so prevalent or life so menaced as in illiterate 
sections. During the influenza epidemic of 1918, 
doctors and nurses found themselves helpless in 
communities where illiteracy prevailed. The 
death-rate is high where illiteracy exists and 
infant mortality mounts to the topmost round. 
Here the precautions of sanitation are little 
known and practised, and innocent children pay 
the penalty with their lives. ^'You say you 
have six children," said an illiterate mother to 
an educated one, '^That's nothing. I've buried 
twelve. ' ' 

After the most destructive war in all history 
the conservation of human life is naturally re- 



170 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

ceiving much attention, but illiteracy offers a 
serious handicap to this noble enterprise. A 
health car was sent out in one of the states to 
demonstrate facts concerning preventable dis- 
eases, and in a few weeks the director of the 
car wrote in, **The car will have to be brought 
in and overhauled. So many people come on it 
who cannot read and write, the printed charts 
are not practical." The car was brought back 
and glass jars, filled to certain depths with 
marbles of different sizes and colors to illus- 
trate the mortality of various diseases, were 
substituted for the charts of letters and figures. 
This was in the United States — not in Russia, 
though it reminds one of the system in use in 
illiterate sections of that country — the placing 
of pictures over the shops instead of lettered 
signs, the ringing of bells to indicate the time 
of trains, and other devices used in a land where 
illiteracy has long reigned supreme. 

Law is less respected and law violations are 
more common where illiteracy flourishes, and 
the court costs are heavy in such communities 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 171 

as compared with those of education and cul- 
ture. An investigation made in seventeen 
typical states in one year showed that the num- 
ber of convicted criminals from the illiterate 
portions of those states was seven times as large 
as from the educated portions. 

In the most lawless district in Kowan County, 
I approached the school-house one evening dur- 
ing the third term of the moonlight schools and 
stopped at the threshold overawed by the un- 
usual scene. The house was filled with men and 
women and every head was bent over the Bible 
intently studying. It was indicative of the 
change which had come over the district with 
the education of the adults. In the years that 
followed, the court records, once filled with the 
misdeeds committed in that district, were left 
blank. 

Illiteracy of parents is depriving more chil- 
dren of school advantages than any other one 
thing. The most illiterate counties in the United 
States, according to the census of 1910 had an 
illiteracy of 60.5 percent and 63.1 percent re- 



172 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

spectively. The former had an average school 
attendance of 21.2 percent, the latter 24.7 per- 
cent — an average in these two counties of less 
than three out of every ten children in school. 
Compared with other counties in the same 
states one with 11.5 percent illiteracy and 63.2 
percent school attendance and another with 10.7 
percent illiteracy and 67.8 percent school attend- 
ance — nearly seven out of every ten children 
in school — the result of illiteracy on school at- 
tendance is striking. 

Illiteracy begets illiteracy. An examination 
of the census reveals this clearly. The names 
of parents and grandparents on the illiteracy 
list are usually followed by the names of most 
of their progeny. A family name is duplicated 
many times on the list. As a measure for in- 
suring the education of the coming generation, 
the illiterate adults should be taught, for even 
where compulsory attendance laws are well en- 
forced, public sentiment back of them is th^ 
only thing that can make them completely 
effective. 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 173 

Education is a great canse and needs the mil- 
lions of illiterates as its converts and its friends. 
Even if they did not need the book and pen, or 
would not use the power to read and write, after 
it had been conferred upon them, but became 
friends and advocates of the school instead of 
remaining indifferent or antagonistic, as some 
of them undoubtedly are, this alone would 
justify their being taught. 

Uncle Martin Sloan walked sixteen miles to 
have a talk with me after he had learned to 
read and write. He said, *'My learning may 
never do me much good. My hands are stiif and 
I can't write much; my eyes are bad and I 
can't see to read a great deal, but I see now 
what I've missed in life, and I want to tell you 
what I'm going to do — I'm going 'round to 
every home in my district just before school 
begins each year, as long as I live, and urge 
the parents to send their children to school." 
A friend of education! Oh, that every one of 
the five million illiterates in America might 
become as this old man and others redeemed 



174 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

from illiteracy, who will not tolerate the crime 
of keeping children ont of school ! 

Some used to say that laboring men worked 
better and were more contented, if illiterate. 
There never was a greater fallacy. Illiteracy 
never plowed a furrow straighter nor produced 
an extra bushel to the acre. It never turned 
out a better product from factory, field or mine. 
It handicaps the laborer, making his task more 
difficult, his position less secure and his life 
less safe. Not only is he handicapped in car- 
rying out the instructions of his employer, but, 
also, in the safe and skillful handling of ma- 
chinery and tools. Illiterate and coarse work- 
men cannot be trusted with the delicate tools 
and, as a rule, are given the clumsy sort that 
will endure the rough handling without break- 
age. This hampers them, al the outset, burden- 
ing them as with ball and chain and giving the 
educated laborer every advantage. In a South- 
ern city illiterate and educated laborers worked 
side by side cleaning the streets. The illiterate 
laborers used clumsy hoes with rough, heavy 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 175 

handles, weighing twelve pounds, and the edu- 
cated workmen used light and graceful ones 
weighing but two. Each laborer pulled twenty 
pounds on the average, at each stroke. The 
illiterate laborers pulled twelve pounds of hoe 
and eight pounds of mud while their educated 
companions pulled two pounds of hoe and 
eighteen pounds of mud. The result was more 
than twice as great when guided by intelligence 
as when guided by physical power alone. 

Man's daily bread is, in a measure, dependent 
upon his ability to read and write, which not 
only increases but creates earning power. 
Many a man has started out searching for work 
and found himself barred from one position 
after another because he could not read or write. 
Prior to the World War illiterate men were 
losing their jobs and being replaced by the edu- 
cated, a tendency which is constantly on the 
increase. 

Uncle Jeff, an illiterate darky of the old-time 
Southern type, had been drayman for years 
for a large manufacturing company and had 



176 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

come to consider himself a fixture when an order 
of the Illinois Central Railway company struck 
him like a thunderbolt. It was to the effect 
that no freight should be delivered to anyone 
who could not read and sign the freight receipts. 
The company felt obliged, of course, to part 
with Uncle Jeff. ^'Aunt Sally," his wife, 
blamed this calamity on the schools and rushed 
to the nearest member of the school board to 
protest against the outrage, ** Hit's jist a gittin' 
so a man cain't do nothin' 'thout he kin read 
and write," she wailed. *^Ef hit keeps on hit 'II 
soon be so a man cain't even plow his cawn 
'thout he kin read what's printed on the plow 
beam." The poor old colored woman spoke 
more truth, in her resentment than she knew. 
It is becoming next to impossible in this com- 
plex and highly specialized age for a man to 
hold any sort of position unless he can read and 
write. 

The lives of laboring men are endangered by 
illiteracy. The ** Safety First" movement is 
designed to instruct the people in care and 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 177 

watchfuliiess on every hand to prevent the de- 
struction of life and property, but the first pre- 
caution of safety for the millions of illiterates is 
to teach them to read and write. All the danger 
signs put up before them might as well be held 
before the eyes of the blind, and yet the legal 
responsibility of employers in some states 
ceases with the posting of such signs. How 
much the removal of illiteracy contributes to 
the safety of the laboring man is indicated by 
this report from Henry Ford's plant where 
educational work is carried on, ^* Accidents in 
this plant have decreased fifty-four percent 
since employees have been able to read factory 
notices and other instructions." 

Commerce is stifled by illiteracy to a degree 
little suspected by the average business man. 
The illiterates, being unable to sign their checks, 
usually hold their money out of the bank ; being 
unable to read newspapers and magazines, they 
seldom put their names on subscription lists; 
realizing that their predicament is made more 
awkward by travel, they remain off of trains, 



178 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

as a rule, and the railroads lose the passenger 
receipts. Having no appreciation of luxuries 
and their earnings being too limited to buy, 
they restrict trade, in illiterate communities, to 
the coarsest commodities. 

In a county where one-third of the population 
was illiterate according to the census of 1910 
the assessor's list showed less than $1,000 in- 
vested in household furniture, less than $500 in 
agricultural implements, although it was an 
agricultural county, less than $43 in watches and 
clocks, not a dollar in gold, silver or plated ware 
or jewelry, and only one diamond ring in the 
whole county and it was the property of a bride 
who had moved in. Lace curtains, china, rugs, 
and paintings had no market here, and chiffon, 
georgette and other delicate fabrics of feminine 
wear were things unknown. If there were but 
one such county in the United States it might 
not be a matter of concern to the tradesman, 
but with many such in existence and some with 
even forty and fifty and sixty percent who can- 
not read or write, illiteracy is something for 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 179 

the enterprising business man to consider when, 
he is figuring profit and loss. 

While waiting in a railway station in Mis- 
sissippi in June, 1917, I noticed that every 
available foot of space was plastered with ad- 
vertising asserting the superiority of certain 
products. Familiar brands of grape juice, soda, 
baking powder, flour, soap and cleansers were 
emblazoned there in all the well-known effective- 
ness of the American advertiser. Thirty to 
forty percent of the population of the six sur- 
rounding counties could not read, so thirty to 
forty cents of every dollar spent in advertising 
was wasted here. 

The State collects no revenue save poll tax 
from ninety percent of its illiterate citizens- 
Uncle Sam has overlooked an important source 
of revenue which if streaming into his coffers 
from five million pockets would soon pay 
his enormous war debt. If all the illiterates 
in this country were taught to read and write, 
even did they average no more than one letter 
each month, they would pay into the treasury 



180 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

aimnally, at the present rate of postage, more 
than a million dollars. 

The Surgeon General's report on illiteracy 
in the American Army showed that ont of a 
million and a half registrants examined, one 
man out of every four was unable to read and 
understand a newspaper or to write a letter 
home. The exact percentage of illiteracy among 
these men, he stated, was 24.9 percent and ran 
as high as 49.5 percent in men sent from one of 
the states. This seems most startling in any 
light that it may be viewed, but it appears all 
the more significant when compared with illit- 
eracy in the ranks of our allies — France having 
only three illiterates out of every hundred in 
the army and England with only one out of 
every hundred. Most of all does it stagger us 
to compare our illiteracy figures with those of 
our recent enemy — only one out of every five 
thousand in the German army was unable to 
read and write. 

The bravery of illiterate soldiers who served 
in the late war is unquestioned. In individual 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 181 

cases and single handed where they could em- 
ploy pioneer methods of warfare they, undoubt- 
edly, did well hut when it was a case for 
concerted action, of obeying orders and of 
co-operation with the troops, their lack of edu- 
cation told on them most tragically. 

One lieutenant said during the War, **I have 
three men in my company who cannot count 
up to four/' In one of the training camps 
where foreign-born soldiers were stationed, 
there were men who did not know the right 
hand from the left. Consequently, they were 
drilled, with a piece of rope in one hand a 
hammer in the other, to the command of 
*^ squads rope" and ** squads hammer" instead 
of ** squads right" and ** squads left." A 
woman who was teaching a man of draft age 
said, *'I could teach Ben just anything and it 
would be something he didn't know. He didn't 
even know how many months there are in a 
year." 

This sort of ignorance in the army in even a 
small proportion of the men would have con- 



182 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

stituted a weakness which, in a long drawn out 
contest, would have told mightily in the final 
results. There were 1,023,000 soldiers in the 
American Army who were illiterate according 
to the statistics branch of the general staff. 
This was an army within an army. They must 
have hindered their comrades oftentimes, be- 
sides being at a fearful disadvantage always 
themselves. The seriousness of this situation 
could not be overestimated. Next to the actual 
casualties, it was America's supreme tragedy 
of the War. 

Illiterates are nowhere at a greater disadvan- 
tage than at the ballot box, where corrupt men 
often purchase their birthright for a mess of 
pottage or cheat them out of it entirely. Henry 
Van Dyke says, *^To place the ballot in the 
hands of illiterate persons is like hanging a 
diamond around the neck of a little child and 
sending it out into the crowded street.'' The 
ballot has not only been placed in the hands of 
2,273,603 illiterate male voters but since the en- 
franchisement of women, the number of illit- 



NEED OP MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 183 

erate voters in America has been augmented 
by, perhaps, two millions more. With over four 
million voters who cannot read their ballots, is 
the body politic sound, healthy, or even safe ? 

Li a republic, society rests upon the intelli- 
gence of the people and only in universal edu- 
cation is democracy safe and liberty securely 
enthroned. A nation which has over four mil- 
lion illiterate voters is not strongly fortified 
to uphold any principle, and society is under- 
mined and weakened at its very source. Since 
universal education is so essential to the suc- 
cess of a democracy it is a wonder that a pro- 
vision was not written into the Constiution of 
the United States similar to the one once pro- 
posed by Cortez for the constitution of Spain, 
^^That no person born after this day shall ac- 
quire the right of citizenship until he can read 
and write.'' Thomas Jefferson said of this, 
**It is impossible to sufficiently estimate the 
wisdom of this provision. Of all that have been 
thought of for securing fidelity in the adminis- 
tration of government and progressive advance- 



184 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

ment of the hxunan miiid or changes in human 
affairs, it is the most effectual. Enlighten the 
people generally and tyranny and oppression of 
body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at 
the dawn of day." 

Nearly a hundred years later President 
Grant in his recommendations to Congress 
wrote as follows, **The compulsory support of 
free schools and the disfranchisement of all who 
cannot read and write the English language, 
after a fixed probation, would meet with my 
hearty approval.'' Had this recommendation 
been carried out and its execution accompanied 
with the opportunity for every man and woman, 
as well as every child, to learn to read and write, 
there would be no army of illiterate voters in 
this country marching to the polls on election 
day. 

Hliterates, even though blind to books and 
helpless to ameliorate their own condition, are 
not without certain power to weaken, harass and 
damage a nation. Pancho Villa, the illiterate 
Mexican outlaw, disturbed the peace of two 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 185 

nations. During the period of unrest following 
the War onr Government faced a critical situa- 
tion. While we struggled with bomb plots on 
the east coast and with strife and disturbance 
on the west, the danger from anarchist, Bol- 
shevist and anti- American sources was greater 
than the general public ever knew. The poison 
spread by them could be neutralized among the 
educated classes through government bulletins 
and newspapers and magazine articles but was 
not so easily counteracted among the illiterate 
masses. Here walking delegates found fertile 
soil for their pernicious doctrines. Not only 
in time of war or in reconstruction but at all 
times are the illiterate masses easily influenced 
and misled. 

There is a poor blind Samson in this land, 
Shorn of his strength and bound with bands of steel. 
Who may, in some grim revel raise his hands 
And shake the pillars of the Commonweal. 

Would that it could be said of the United 
States as a certain citizen of Copenhagen said 
of his country when touring America in 1919, 



186 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

** Bolshevism would make no headway in Den- 
mark, as there is not a person in that country 
who cannot read or write his name, in fact write 
a letter. Where there is education, there is 
little chance of Bolshevism gaining a foothold." 

The majority of America's illiterate millions, 
though born upon her soil, are as ignorant of 
the principles and traditions of their own coun- 
try as they are of those of Italy or Spain. They 
have never realized or claimed their heritage 
of citizenship, never felt the thrill of intelligent 
patriotism that others have known. To teach 
them would not only enrich them as citizens but 
in the words of the prophet Isaiah would, ^* in- 
crease the nation and extend all the borders of 
the land." 

Illiteracy is one of the great handicaps to 
religion. In its centers churches and Sunday 
schools cannot thrive. The most literate county 
in the State of Kentucky has numerous churches 
while the most illiterate county has but one, 
and that is in the county seat. The number of 
Sunday schools in Eowan County doubled after 



NEED OF MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 187 

the illiteracy campaign. Men need mental de- 
velopment to put them into intelligent relation 
with their Creator, to give them an understand- 
ing of the Divine Being. ^^I cannot give an 
illiterate man even an intelligent conception of 
God," said a woman who attempted to teach a 
Sunday school class of illiterate men in prison. 

If the Christian world conld realize how illit- 
erates yearn to read the Bible, the followers of 
the Master wonld hasten with swift feet to 
nnlock its pages to them. Had it not been the 
will of onr Heavenly Father that all shonld be 
tanght to read and write, He wonld not have 
given His Word to the world in the form of a 
book. 

A woman in LoTiisa, Kentucky, prayed for 
ten years for a Bible and the power to read it. 
She was presented with one by her sons, but it 
was in the days before the illiteracy crusade 
and they did not think of teaching her to read it. 
She learned, however, by having a neighbor's 
children teach her the letters on box cars 
switched off on a railway siding near her milk- 



188 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

gap. She lived to enjoy her Bible for ten years 
after it had become to her an open book and she 
marked the passages which comforted her most. 
These were read at her funeral where this story 
of her triumph over illiteracy was publicly told. 
Abraham Lincoln's boyhood prayer was not 
for wealtli or fame or the high position of Chief 
Executive. It was, 

God help mother, help father, help sister, 
Help everybody. Teach me to read and 

write. 
Watch over Honey and make him a good 

dog; 
And keep us all from getting lost in the 

wilderness. Amen. 

How many illiterates are praying today, 
** Teach me to read and write?" How many 
hunger and thirst after knowledge but know not 
how to secure it? *'Give me knowledge or I 
shall die, has been the prayer of countless mil- 
lions,*' says David Swing, the great American 
divine. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE CALL OF THE HLTTERATES 

Plato said, **I believe that every immortal 
soul is the offspring of a divine thought, of a 
divine purpose, and that God has in His mind 
a picture like nnto which He would have every- 
one of us to become.'' It cannot be that God 
so just, so merciful, ever had it in His mind that 
any human being should be ultimately and for- 
ever illiterate. It is not the will of our Heavenly 
Father that millions remain in ignorance or 
that thousands have filled illiterate graves, that 

Knowledge to their eyes her ample page 
Kich with the spoils of time did ne 'er unroll, 

nor is it by the will of the illiterates themselves 
but through the shortsightedness and selfish- 
ness of educated men. 

The illiterate is more to be pitied than the 
blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, and he has 

189 



190 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

an affliction, in a measure, equal to that of the 
insane. The illiterate can see, bnt is blind to 
all the lore over which the masters have striven 
and left to bless the world ; he can hear, he can 
distinguish sound, but cannot appreciate music ; 
he can talk, but is powerless to express the 
sweetest combinations of his native language 
or the highest emotions of his soul ; he can walk, 
not with the upright, independent step of the 
educated man, but even in his shambling gait 
he reveals the burden that he bears; he has a 
mind, not muddled as the insane, but dwarfed, 
undeveloped and unacquainted with all the 
beautiful things for which it was created. 
* ^ Short-armed ignorance," says Shakespeare. 
Short-armed indeed ! Unable to reach the book 
on the shelves of yonder public library ; unable 
to reach the magazine on that news-stand and 
to enjoy its contents or to reach the newspaper 
and keep himself informed of the progress of 
events and the movements of his fellow men; 
unable to reach the absent one with a message 
from his own heart ; unable to reach the Sunday 






.>va/u 









MOTHER OF TWELVE CHILDREN LEARNS TO READ 

AND WRITE 



THE CALL OF THE ILLITERATES 191 

school lesson or church hymnal ; nnable to reach 
the Lord's prayer, the Twenty-third Psalm or 
Christ's Sermon on the Mount. 

Those who would keep the illiterates out of 
their chance or who claim that they do not 
want to learn do them a great injustice. Un- 
doubtedly there has long been a striving upward 
among the mass of illiterates which has needed 
but a helping hand to turn into actual achieve- 
ment. Since many have been taught in the past 
decade it has given new hope and the urge to 
others, and has started them out seeking their 
sight. Like blind Bartimeus who sat by the 
roadside crying, ''Thou son of David have 
mercy on me'' the illiterates cry from every- 
where. ''Give me sight — ^have mercy on me." 
They call from the deep forests where brawny 
woodsmen with stunted brain fell the trees to 
build America's homes, its ships and bridges, 
they call from the pit of the mine where 
men, bent and blackened, dig the precious 
ore which sends a gleam athwart a million 
hearth-stones, they call from the noise and hum 



192 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

of tlie factory where men slave and women 
toil to conserve the food and to produce 
the fabric which feeds and clothes their fellow- 
men, they call from the mountain fastnesses 
where men, walled in, have preserved the blood 
of a noble race to pour like the elixir of life 
into the nation's blood-stream, they call from 
the Southern cotton fields where Lincoln's black 
brother toils and knows no real emancipation — 
the emancipation of the mind — ^but waits for us 
to come and set him free. They call from the 
Western plains where dwell the sons of pioneers 
who braved the loneliness and dangers of a vast 
wilderness that they might advance the outposts 
of civilization. 

Hasten the day when the rural as well as the 
city dweller, no matter where he may be, whether 
in the Southern cotton fields or on the Western 
plains, in the mountains, or by the sea, shall 
have a school which is not only open to his 
children and his grand-children by day, but one 
which is open to his father, his mother, his 
wife, his hired man and himself at night. 




o 
o 

u 

m 



be 



a; 



-a 



o 

00 









THE CALL OF THE ILLITERATES 193 

Hasten the day wlien there shall be no men and 
women in this country of ours who have eyes 
to see and yet see not the splendid truths which 
have been written in books, and who have hands 
to write but write not the thoughts which, if 
recorded, might stamp with genius someone 
whom in its urgent need the world is seeldng 
to-day. 

But why do you ask me should this tale be told 
To men grown old, or who are growing old? 
It is too late ! Ah, nothing is too late 
Till the tired heart has ceased to palpitate. 
Cato learned Greek at eighty. Sophocles 
Wrote his grand (Edipus, and Simonides 
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers 
When each had numbered more than fourscore years, 

Goethe at Weimer, toiling to the last, 
Completed Faust when eighty years were past. 
These were exceptions, but they show 
How far the gulf stream of our youth may flow 
Into the arctic regions of our lives 
When little else than life itself survives. 
What then ! Shall we sit idly down and say, 
**The night has come; it is no longer day?'* 
I'he night has not yet come ; we are not quite 
Cut off from labor by the failing light. 
Something remains for us to do or dare, 
Even the oldest tree may some fruit bear. 



194 MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS 

Not (Edipus, Coloneus, or Greek ode, 
Or tales of pilgrims that one morning rode 
Out of tlie gateway of the Tabard Inn, 
But other something could we but begin, 
For age is opportunity no less 
Than youth itself, though in another dress. 
And as the evening twilight fades away, 
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day. 



3^77 



